Livermorium

Livermorium:

An aerial view of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, outside Livermore, California. Photo credit: llnl.gov / Public domain

Facts about Livermorium:

• Livermorium: Unknown, only a few atoms have ever been made.
• Fun fact about Livermorium: Livermorium is named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), outside Livermore in California.
• Chemical symbol: Lv
• Atomic number: 116

A crystal structure celebrating Livermorium:

A crystal structure of curium metal.  Curium atoms are shown as grey spheres.

Facts about this structure:

• Formula: 0.33(Cm₁₂)_n
• Structure name: Curium
• Fun fact about the structure: This was the first reported crystal structure of curium metal.  In 1969, a second 'phase' of curium was discovered, in which the atoms pack in a different arrangement. Curcium is used to make Livermorium.
  
• ICSD number: 622373 (Find out more about the ICSD database)
• Associated publication: B.B. Cunningham, J.C. Wallmann, Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, 1964, 26, 271, DOI: 10.1016/0022-1902(64)80069-5

More info:

Livermorium does not occur in nature, and was first made in the year 2000, at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, in Dubna, Russian.  It was made by firing calcium nucleii at a target of curium metal.  Livermorium is named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) because it was the LLNL who supplied the curium target that was used.  Livermorium is a radioactive metal, and its longest lived isotope has a half life of only 0.061 seconds!

More info about the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) in crystals project:

This project (#IYPTCrystals) is part of the International Year of the Periodic Table celebration (#IYPT2019), read more about the project here. You can follow us on social media using #IYPTCrystals and learn more about the wonders of crystals by following the CCDC on Twitter @ccdc_cambridge on Facebook ccdc.cambridge, on Instagram ccdc_cambridge or on YouTube CCDCCambridge.

If you want to find out more about some of the terms and concepts we have a Frequently Asked Questions Page.

A visualisation showing the structure celebrating Livermorium alongside other structures published in the same scientific article: