Research Paper on Moscovium

Introduction

Moscovium is a synthetic radioactive element that has been classified as a metal and is presumed to be solid at room temperature. The element has been observed to quickly decay into other elements, such as nihonium. moscovium was discovered in 2003 after scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States and scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, bombarded calcium-48 ions with Americium -243 atoms. The bombardment process resulted in four Moscovium atoms which decayed in under 1/10 second into ununtritiumatoms.

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Uses of Moscovium

Because of its high decaying nature, only a couple of moscovium atoms have been created, explicitly used in the laboratory for scientific studies. Moscovium is used in making nihonium. Since it is a relatively new element, much of its properties and potential uses can only be predicted based on related elements in the periodic table.

Predicted Moscovium Properties

Nuclear Stability and Isotopes

Scientists expect moscovium to be located in the middle of a stable island that is centered on flerovium (element 114) and copernicium (element 112). This island is presumed to have high fission barriers, which causes any nuclei within the stability island to decay exclusively through beta or alpha decay. The hypothetical isotope 291Mc bears only one neutron more than 290Mc which is the heaviest known isotope of moscovium. Laboratory calculations have shown that the element might have an important positron emission decay mode or electron capture in addition to alpha decay and may also have a relatively longer half-life of a few seconds.

Moscovium is a member of group 15 in the periodic table, the pnictogens, below nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth.

Predicted General Properties of Moscovium

Predicted Physical Properties of Moscovium

Predicted Atomic Properties of Moscovium

The Main Moscovium Isotopes

Every former pnictogen has five electrons in the valence shell, creating a valence electron configuration of ns2np3.

In the case of moscovium, this trend is expected to continue with a supposed valence electron configuration of 7s27p3; thus, moscovium is expected to react identically to its lighter congeners in many dimensions. Notable differences however are likely to exist; among them is the large contributing spin effect known as the orbit (SO) interaction which is defined as the mutual interaction between the electrons' spin and its motion. The super-heavy elements have a strong spin effect, which is attributed to the fast movement of electrons in comparison to the lighter atoms. Sometimes the spin speed is close to the speed of light. The spin effect lowers the 7s and the 7p electron energy levels of moscovium atoms which stabilizes the corresponding electrons in the element. However, two of the 7p electron energy levels are stabilized more than the other four.

Scientists predict moscovium to be the third member of the 7p series of chemical elements and the heaviest member of group 15 in the periodic table, below bismuth. Unlike the other two previous 7p elements, scientists predict moscovium to be a good homologue of its lighter congener; such as bismuth in this scenario. The chemical reaction of moscovium in aqueous solutions should basically be the reaction of Mc3+ ions and Mc+. The latter should easily be hydrolysed and not complexed easily with cyanide, ammonia and halides. Fluoride (McF) , Moscovium hydroxide (McOH), oxalate (Mc2C2O4), carbonate (Mc2CO3), should be soluble in water;; and the chloride (McCl), the sulfide (Mc2S) should be insoluble bromide (McBr), , and thiocyanate (McSCN) iodide (McI)should only be moderately soluble, such that adding excess hydrochloric acid would not evidently influence the solubility of moscovium(I) chloride.

The stability of Mc3+ ions should be equivalent to that of as Tl3+ ions, a factor that. provides massive knowledge on the concept of moscovium chemical properties. The closest homolog however would be the lighter congener Bi3+ ions among thiozonide (McS3) and Moscovium (III) fluoride (McF3) elements. Thiozonide (McS3) and Moscovium(III) fluoride (McF3) elements should also be insoluble in water, as the case with their corresponding bismuth compounds, while bromide (McBr3), iodide (McI3), moscovium(III) and chloride (McCl3), should readily be soluble and easily hydrolysed to form oxyhalides such as McOBr and McOCl, also analogous to bismuth compunds. Both categories of moscovium; moscovium (I) and moscovium (III) should be in their ordinary oxidation states. The relative stability of moscovium elements should largely be dependant upon their complex composition and the rate of hydrolysis.

References

Ting-Kueh, S. (2017). Chemistry Education. Chemistry International, 39(1), 33-36.

Karol, P. J., Barber, R. C., Sherrill, B. M., Vardaci, E., & Yamazaki, T. (2016). Discovery of the elements with atomic numbers Z= 113, 115 and 117 (IUPAC Technical Report). Pure and Applied Chemistry, 88(1-2), 139-153.

Moody, Ken. (2015)."Synthesis of Superheavy Elements". In Schadel, Matthias; Shaughnessy, Dawn. The Chemistry of Superheavy Elements (2nd ed.). Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 24-8.

Alvarez-Thon, L., & Caimanque-Aguilar, W. (2017). Spin-orbit effects on magnetically induced current densities in the M42-(M= B, Al, Ga, In, Tl) clusters. Chemical Physics Letters, 671, 118-123.