Livermorium is a man-made chemical element. Its symbol is Lv and its atomic number is 116. This means it has 116 protons in its atom's nucleus. Livermorium is extremely radioactive, which means it breaks down very quickly. Scientists have only been able to create it in laboratories; it does not exist naturally on Earth.

The element is named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States. This lab worked with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, to discover livermorium. They found it during experiments between 2000 and 2006. The name of the lab comes from the city of Livermore, California, which was named after a rancher called Robert Livermore. The official name "Livermorium" was approved by IUPAC on May 30, 2012.

Scientists know about six different versions, or isotopes, of livermorium. These have mass numbers from 288 to 293. The isotope that lasts the longest is livermorium-293, but even that only lasts for about 80 milliseconds (that's 80 thousandths of a second!). There might be a seventh isotope, livermorium-294, but it hasn't been officially confirmed yet.

In the periodic table, livermorium is a p-block transactinide element. It is in the 7th row and belongs to group 16. This group is called the chalcogens. Livermorium is the heaviest element in this group. However, scientists are still studying if it behaves exactly like its lighter relatives, such as oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium. They predict that livermorium will have some similar traits to these elements, but also some big differences. It is expected to be a post-transition metal.

What are Superheavy Elements?
How Livermorium Was Discovered
Predicted Properties of Livermorium
Experimental Chemistry
See also

What are Superheavy Elements?

Superheavy elements are chemical elements that have a very high atomic number, usually 104 or more. They are not found in nature. Instead, scientists create them in laboratories by smashing smaller atoms together at very high speeds. These elements are usually very unstable and break down into lighter elements almost instantly.

Scientists study superheavy elements to understand more about the nucleus of an atom. They want to know how many protons and neutrons an atom can have before it becomes too unstable to exist. Discovering new superheavy elements helps them test theories about the structure of matter.

How Livermorium Was Discovered

Scientists tried to create element 116 many times before they succeeded.

Early Attempts to Make Element 116

The first try to find element 116 happened in 1977. Ken Hulet and his team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory tried to combine curium-248 and calcium-48. They didn't find any livermorium atoms. Yuri Oganessian and his team in Dubna, Russia, also tried in 1978, but they also failed. In 1985, another joint experiment in Germany also didn't find it.

Despite these failures, scientists in Dubna kept working on reactions using calcium-48. This type of reaction had been very useful for making other heavy elements. They improved their equipment and methods throughout the 1990s. This hard work eventually led to the discovery of five of the heaviest elements on the periodic table: flerovium, moscovium, livermorium, tennessine, and oganesson.

In 1995, a team in Germany tried a different method. They tried to combine lead-208 and selenium-82. Again, no livermorium atoms were found.

A Claim That Was Not Confirmed

In 1998, a physicist named Robert Smolańczuk suggested that elements like 118 and 116 might be made by fusing lead with krypton.

In 1999, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US announced they had discovered elements 118 and 116. They said they had performed a nuclear reaction where krypton-86 and lead-208 combined to make oganesson-293, which then decayed to livermorium-289.

However, other labs could not repeat their experiment. The Berkeley lab itself also couldn't get the same results. The following year, they officially took back their claim. In 2002, the lab director announced that the original discovery claim was based on incorrect data. The isotope livermorium-289 was finally discovered much later, in 2024, at the JINR.

The Official Discovery

Livermorium was first successfully made on July 19, 2000. Scientists at the JINR in Dubna, Russia, bombarded a target of curium-248 with fast-moving calcium-48 ions. They detected just one atom of livermorium. This atom broke down by alpha decay, turning into an isotope of flerovium. The scientists published their findings in December 2000.

At first, they thought the livermorium isotope was ²⁹²Lv, but later research in 2002 showed it was actually ²⁹³Lv.

Confirming the Discovery

The Dubna institute reported two more livermorium atoms in April–May 2001. They kept repeating experiments to confirm their findings. In April–May 2005, they detected 8 more atoms of livermorium. This data helped confirm that the first discovered isotope was indeed ²⁹³Lv. In this same experiment, they also saw the isotope ²⁹²Lv for the first time.

From 2004 to 2006, the team used a slightly different curium isotope, curium-245. This led to evidence for two more isotopes: ²⁹⁰Lv and ²⁹¹Lv.

In 2011, the IUPAC (the group that names elements) officially recognized the discovery of livermorium. They accepted the results from the Dubna team's experiments between 2004 and 2006.

Other labs have also confirmed the creation of livermorium. The GSI lab in Germany confirmed it in 2012, and the RIKEN lab in Japan confirmed it in 2014 and 2016. In 2016, RIKEN might have detected livermorium-294, but this needs more confirmation.

Naming Livermorium

Robert Livermore, the indirect namesake of livermorium

Before it got its official name, livermorium was sometimes called ununhexium (Uuh). This was a temporary name suggested by IUPAC in 1979. However, most scientists just called it "element 116."

The discoverers of a new element get to suggest a name. The IUPAC officially recognized the discovery of livermorium on June 1, 2011. The Dubna team first thought about naming element 116 moscovium, after the region where Dubna is located. But they decided to use that name for element 115 instead.

The name livermorium and the symbol Lv were officially approved on May 23, 2012. The name honors the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, USA. This lab worked with JINR on the discovery. The city of Livermore was named after an American rancher, Robert Livermore. A ceremony to celebrate the naming of flerovium and livermorium took place in Moscow on October 24, 2012.

Other Ways to Make Livermorium

Scientists are also exploring other ways to make livermorium. This helps them prepare for trying to create even heavier elements.

In 2023, scientists at JINR studied a reaction between uranium-238 and chromium-54. They reported one atom of a new isotope, livermorium-288. In 2024, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported making two atoms of livermorium-290 by combining plutonium-244 and titanium-50. This was seen as a very important step forward. Also in 2024, the JINR team found more data for livermorium-288 and discovered another new isotope, livermorium-289.

Predicted Properties of Livermorium

Scientists have not been able to measure any properties of livermorium directly. This is because it's extremely hard and expensive to make, and it decays too quickly. All we have are predictions based on scientific calculations.

Nuclear Stability and Isotopes

Scientists believe that livermorium is close to an "island of stability" in the periodic table. This "island" is a region where superheavy elements might be more stable and last longer than others. The center of this island is thought to be around elements like copernicium (element 112) and flerovium (element 114).

The known isotopes of livermorium don't have enough neutrons to be right on this "island." However, the heavier livermorium isotopes are generally more stable and last longer, which shows they are getting closer to the island.

Superheavy elements are made through nuclear fusion. This involves smashing two smaller nuclei together. There are two main types of fusion: "hot" and "cold."

Hot fusion uses light, high-energy particles to hit very heavy targets. This creates a highly excited nucleus that might break apart or release several neutrons.
Cold fusion uses heavier particles and lighter targets. This creates a less excited nucleus that only needs to release one or two neutrons to cool down. Hot fusion usually creates isotopes with more neutrons.

Scientists want to make more livermorium isotopes, especially those with slightly more or fewer neutrons than the ones we know. This would give them important information about superheavy nuclei. For example, making livermorium-294 and livermorium-295 could lead to very stable elements. It's predicted that livermorium-295 could decay to copernicium-291, which might have a half-life of about 1200 years! This would be a huge step towards reaching the middle of the "island of stability."

Physical and Atomic Properties

Livermorium is in group 16 of the periodic table, below oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium. All these elements have six electrons in their outer shell. Livermorium is expected to have a similar electron setup, which means it should share some traits with its lighter relatives.

However, there will also be big differences. This is mainly due to something called the spin–orbit interaction. This effect is very strong for superheavy elements because their electrons move extremely fast, almost at the speed of light. This interaction changes how the electrons behave and makes some of them much more stable.

Because of these effects, livermorium's electrons are expected to be very "lazy" or unreactive. This is called the inert pair effect. It means that livermorium might not form as many chemical bonds as its lighter relatives.

Scientists predict that livermorium's melting point and boiling point will follow the trend of the chalcogens. It should melt at a higher temperature than polonium but boil at a lower temperature. It is also expected to be denser than polonium. Like polonium, it might exist in two different forms, called allotropes.

Chemical Properties

Livermorium is expected to be the heaviest element in group 16. Its chemistry is predicted to be quite similar to polonium.

Most chalcogens can form compounds where they have a +6 oxidation state. However, as you go down the group, this +6 state becomes less stable. For livermorium, the +2 oxidation state is expected to be the most stable. The +4 state might be possible, but only with very strong bonding partners like fluorine (for example, in LvF₄). The +6 state is probably not possible at all for livermorium.

Lighter chalcogens can also form a −2 state, like in oxides or sulfides. But for livermorium, the −2 state is expected to be very unstable. This means livermorium will likely act mostly as a positive ion in chemical reactions.

Livermorium hydride (LvH₂) would be the heaviest compound of hydrogen and a chalcogen. It would be similar to water (H₂O), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and polonium hydride (PoH₂). Scientists predict that LvH₂ would be a covalent molecule, meaning it shares electrons. The bonds in LvH₂ are expected to be longer than usual, and the angle between the hydrogen atoms might be larger than expected.

Experimental Chemistry

It has been very difficult to study the chemical properties of livermorium directly. This is because it's so hard to make and decays so quickly.

In 2011, scientists did experiments to create nihonium, flerovium, and moscovium. During these experiments, they also accidentally made some isotopes of bismuth and polonium. They found that the hydrides of bismuth and polonium (BiH₃ and PoH₂) were surprisingly stable at high temperatures. This information could help them in the future when they try to study the chemistry of moscovium hydride (McH₃) and livermorium hydride (LvH₂).

Scientists believe that livermorium, as a pure element, would be volatile enough to be studied chemically, similar to polonium. However, because all known livermorium isotopes have such short half-lives, it is still not possible to do chemical experiments with this element.

Livermorium facts for kids

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