The Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (Institute for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany
7 July 2023
Darmstadtium is a synthetic, radioactive, transuranic element with atomic number 110 and the symbol Ds. It has no uses beyond pure research. The half-life of its most stable element is only 12.7 seconds.
Darmstadtium was first synthesized in 1994 at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (Institute for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany by a team led by Sigurd Hofmann. The discovery was announced in December 1995, but no name was given to the element at that time.
In 2001, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) confirmed the discovery and invited the team to propose a name for the element. And on 16 August 2003 the IUPAC announced the name darmstadtium and the symbol Ds, continuing “the long-established tradition of naming an element after the place of its discovery.”
The official announcement of the name was preceded by a note in the journal Nature the day prior to the official announcement.
Sources:
Ball, Philip. “Element 110 to Be Named Tomorrow.” Nature, 15 August 2003. DOI: 10.1038/news030811-8.
Hofmann, S., et al. “Production and Decay of 269110.” Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei, 350, 1995, 277–80. DOI: 10.1007/BF01291181.
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). “Element 110 Is Named Darmstadtium” (press release), 16 August 2003.
Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements—Part 3—Rivalry of Scientists in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.” Foundations of Chemistry, 12 November 2022.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, December 2013, s.v. darmstadtium, n.
Photo credit: Commander-pirx, 2011. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.