Nobelium

History


Discovery


Nobelium was first discovered by Russian scientists in 1956, they named it joliotium (Jo) after Irene Joliot-Curie, but the discovery was ignored [4]. The element was then discovered by A. Ghiorso, T. Sikkeland, J.R. Walton, and G.T. Seaborg by bombardment of 244Cm and 246Cm with 12C ions at Berkeley University in 1958. In 1957, a Swedish team claimed to have found the element, and gave it the name Nobelium, however, scientists in both USA and Russia showed that what they had discovered could not be element no. 102. While the Swedish team had not discovered the element, and thus did not have the right to name it, the Berkeley group decided to keep the name and symbol [2]. The Russians being the first to discover the element has been acknowledged later [4].

Origin of name


Named after Alfred Nobel [2,4]. When the element was first discovered by Russian scientists in 1956, they named it joliotium (Jo) after Irene Joliot-Curie, but the discovery was ignored, and the name nobelium became the common name after a team of scientist at the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockholm claimed to have discovered the element in 1957 [4]. While the common name for element 102, the name was not official until 1997, when IUPAC decided on calling the element nobelium [3].