Discovery in Detail
The discovery was based on a grand total of only 17 atoms. It is synthesized via the 253Es (α,n) 256101 reaction in the 60-Inch-Cyclotron (= 152 cm) at Berkeley (California). The target can be produced by irradiation of lighter isotopes as plutonium in the Materials Testing Reactor at the Arco Reactor Station in Idaho. Remarkable is that this target consisted of only 109 atoms of highly radioactive 253Es (with a half-life of 20.5 days). By elution through a calibrated cation exchange resin column, mendelevium was separated and chemically identified.
Read more about this topic: Mendelevium
Famous quotes containing the words discovery and/or detail:
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—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
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