Flerovium facts for kids
Flerovium is a chemical element. It is also named eka-lead. It has the symbol Fl. It has the atomic number 114. It is a superheavy element. Flerovium is radioactive.
Flerovium does not exist in nature. It has to be made. It is a synthetic element. It is made from a nuclear reaction between plutonium and calcium. The reaction that happens is a fusion reaction.
History
The discovery of Flerovium in December 1998 was reported in January 1999 by scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. The same team of scientists made another isotope of Uuq three months later and made it again in 2004 and 2006.
In 2004 in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research checked it was made by another method. They found the final products of radioactive decay.
After its discovery, the "new" element was named Ununquadium. The named changed on May 30th, 2012 to "Flerovium". The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry named it so.
Chemical properties
Not enough Flerovium has been made to measure its physical or chemical properties. It is thought that it would be a soft, dense metal that changes colour in air. It may have a low melting point of about 200 °C.
Making it
Flerovium can be made by bombarding a plutonium-244 target with calcium-48 as a beam of ions.
