Rutherfordium is a chemical element with symbol Rf and atomic number 104, named in honor of physicist Ernest Rutherford. It is a synthetic element (an element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature) and radioactive; the most stable known isotope, 267Rf, has a half-life of approximately 1.3 hours. In the periodic table of the elements, it is a d - block element and the second of the fourth - row transition elements.
Three reasons Rutherfordium stands out
- 1
Named after New Zealand physicist who was part of describing the atomic structure.
- 2
It was the first transactinide element to be synthesised, during a fierce Cold War scientific rivalry in the 1960s.
- 3
Its most stable isotope has a half-life of only about 1.3 hours.
The first element beyond the actinides
Rutherfordium opened the transactinide region, where atoms are created one at a time and vanish quickly. American and Soviet teams disputed priority and naming during the Cold War. Fast chemistry later showed that rutherfordium broadly resembles hafnium, as its position predicts.