The mineralogy of Fermium
| About Fermium |
|---|
| Fermium is a radioactive transuranic element that has only been produced in nuclear reactors. It is possible that some fermium and other transuranic elements were created in the natural nuclear reactor in Oklo, Gabon. |
| General Properties | |
|---|---|
| Symbol: | Fm |
| Atomic Number: | 100 |
| Standard atomic weight (Ar): | [257] |
| Electron configuration: | [Rn] 5f12 7s2 |
| Photos | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
A fermium-ytterbium alloy |
| Atomic Properties | |
|---|---|
| Electronegativity (Pauling scale): | 1.3 |
| 1st Ionization energy: | 627 kJ/mol |
| Oxidation States: | 2,3 |
| Physical Properties | |
|---|---|
| Melting Point: | 1800 K |
| Metal/Non-Metal: | actinoid |
| Main isotopes of Fermium | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isotope | % in Nature | Half Life | Decay type | Decay product |
| 252Fm | synthetic | 25.39h | Spontaneous fission | |
| α | 248Cf | |||
| 253Fm | synthetic | 3d | ε | 253Es |
| α | 249Cf | |||
| 255Fm | synthetic | 20.07h | Spontaneous fission | |
| α | 251Cf | |||
| 257Fm | synthetic | 100.5d | α | 253Cf |
| Spontaneous fission | ||||
| Main ions of Fermium | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Ion | Example minerals | ||
| fermium(II) | Fm2+ | |||
| fermium(III) | Fm3+ | |||
| Other Information | |
|---|---|
| Year Discovered: | 1952 |
| Discovered By: | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| Named For: |  Enrico Fermi |
| CPK color coding: | #B31FBA |
| External Links: | WikipediaWebElementsLos Alamos National LaboratoryTheodore Gray's PeriodicTable.com |
| Periodic Table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Einsteinium << Fermium >> Mendelevium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spotted a mistake/omission? - These pages are a work in progress, so please send all comments/corrections to jolyon@mindat.org. Thank you.
Constants and physical property data from:
David R. Lide (ed.), CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 85th Edition. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida (2005).
Kaye and Laby Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants (2005). Section 3.1.3, Abundances of the elements
A. Earnshaw, N. Greenwood, Chemistry of the Elements, 2nd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, (1997)
Thomas J. Ahrens (ed.), Global Earth Physics : A Handbook of Physical Constants, American Geophysical Union (1995)
L.B. Railsback, An Earth Scientist's Periodic Table of the Elements and Their Ions : Geology 31:9 p737-740 (2003)
Emsley, J. Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements. New York: Oxford University Press (2001)
