Properties and Overview of Tennessine

Overview:

Tennessine (Ts) with the chemical symbol Ts and atomic number 117, is a superheavy element and one of the most recent additions to the periodic table. It was first synthesized in 2010 through a collaborative effort between Russian and American scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA, which contributed to its name. Tennessine is named after the state of Tennessee, honoring the contributions of its institutions to the discovery. Physically, as a superheavy element, tennessine is expected to exhibit properties typical of other elements in the halogen group. However, its characteristics are primarily theoretical due to the difficulty in studying such a short-lived element. It is predicted to be a solid at room temperature, potentially with a metallic appearance, distinguishing it from lighter halogens that are gases or liquids. Its atomic radius and density have not been measured. However, they are expected to be significantly larger than lighter halogens due to relativistic effects that influence the properties of superheavy elements.
Chemically, tennessine is part of group 17, the halogens, which include fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. However, unlike the lighter halogens, tennessine is expected to exhibit some metallic characteristics, possibly placing it closer to the metalloid astatine in behavior. The element is expected to form compounds similar to other halogens, such as tennessine halides. However, the stability and reactivity of these compounds would be influenced by its sizeable atomic size and relativistic effects. Predictions suggest that tennessine could have oxidation states of +1, +3, and +5, which is somewhat unusual for halogens, hinting at its complex chemistry.
Regarding safety, tennessine, like other superheavy elements, is highly radioactive. Its isotopes decay rapidly, emitting alpha particles and other radiation types, which pose significant health risks if exposure were possible. However, the minuscule quantities produced, combined with the rapid decay of its isotopes, mean that tennessine poses no practical safety concerns outside the highly controlled environments in which it is synthesized and studied. The handling of tennessine, as with other radioactive elements, would require stringent safety protocols to protect researchers from radiation exposure.

Production:

Tennessine is produced through a highly complex and resource-intensive process known as a fusion reaction. In its synthesis, a target made of berkelium-249 (Bk-249) is bombarded with calcium-48 (Ca-48) ions in a particle accelerator. This collision can produce a few atoms of tennessine, which typically have an extremely short half-life, in milliseconds to seconds, before decaying into lighter elements through a series of alpha decays. Because of its short-lived nature, only a few atoms of tennessine have ever been produced, making it impossible to study in bulk or observe its properties directly.

Applications:

Applications for tennessine are purely theoretical and limited to scientific research due to its extreme instability and difficulty in producing it. The primary interest in tennessine lies in its contribution to understanding the "island of stability," a theoretical region in the periodic table where superheavy elements might have relatively longer half-lives. Research on tennessine and related elements helps scientists explore the limits of the periodic table and the forces that hold atomic nuclei together. This research has implications for nuclear physics and could eventually lead to discovering new elements with practical applications.

Summary:

Tennessine is a superheavy synthetic element with predicted physical and chemical properties that place it within the halogen group. However, it has unique characteristics due to its high atomic number. It is produced through fusion reactions in particle accelerators, resulting in only a few atoms with extremely short half-lives. Tennessine is highly radioactive, but its rarity and rapid decay limit practical safety concerns. While it has no current applications beyond scientific research, tennessine is crucial in advancing our understanding of superheavy elements and the fundamental principles of chemistry and nuclear physics.

See a comprehensive list of atomic, electrical, mechanical, physical and thermal properties for tennessine below: