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Einsteinium, 99Es
General properties
Pronunciation /aɪnˈstaɪniəm/ (eyen-STY-nee-əm)
Appearance silvery; glows blue in the dark

Mass number 252 (most stable isotope)
Einsteinium in the periodic table
Atomic number (Z) 99

Group group n/a
Period period 7
Block f-block
Element category actinide
Electron configuration [Rn] 5f11 7s2
Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 29, 8, 2
Physical properties
Phase at STP solid
Melting point 1133 K (860 °C, 1580 °F)
Boiling point 1269 K (996 °C, 1825 °F) (estimated)
Density (near r.t.) 8.84 g/cm3
Atomic properties
Oxidation states +2, +3, +4
Electronegativity Pauling scale: 1.3
 1st: 619 kJ/mol
Ionization energies
Discovery of Einsteinium
Dr. Doug Stewart
Einsteinium was the seventh synthetic transuranium element of the actinide series to be
discovered.Einsteinium-253 (half-life 20.47 days) was identified in 1952 by teams of scientists from
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory and the Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory. The project was led by Albert Ghiorso .
Einsteinium was discovered unexpectedly along with fermium in debris from the first large
hydrogen bomb test, which took place in the Pacific on October 31 1952. The debris was collected
on filter papers attached to drone airplanes that flew through the explosion area. Later, to obtain
more material, many hundreds of pounds of coral from the blast area were examined. Einsteinium
was identified by chemical analysis. (1)
The new element was produced by the nuclear explosion in miniscule amounts by the
addition of 15 neutrons to uranium-238 (which then underwent seven beta decays). (2)
In 1961 einsteinium was produced in a weighable quantity (0.01 micrograms) for the first
(3)
time.
The pure metal was isolated for the first time in the 1970s. (3a)
The element is named after Albert Einstein.
History of Einsteinium
Einsteinium was discovered in the debris of the first thermonuclear explosion which took place on a
Pacific atoll, on 1 November 1952. Fall-out material, gathered from a neigbouring atoll, was sent to
Berkeley, California, for analysis. There it was examined by Gregory Choppin, Stanley Thompson, Albert
Ghiorso, and Bernard Harvey. Within a month they had discovered and identified 200 atoms of a new
element, einsteinium, but it was not revealed until 1955.
The einsteinium had formed when some uranium atoms had captured several neutrons and gone
through a series of capture and decay steps resulting in einsteinium-253, which has a half-life of 20.5 days.
By 1961, enough einsteinium had been collected to be visible to the naked eye, and weighed, although it
amounted to mere 10 millionths of a gram.
Appearance and Characteristics

Harmful effects: Einsteinium is harmful due to its radioactivity. Characteristics: Einsteinium is a
synthetic, highly radioactive metal that has only been produced in tiny amounts .It is the first
divalent metal in the actinide series (two bonding electrons rather than three). A radioactive metal,
only a few milligrams of which are made each year. The design is inspired by the work of Albert
Einstein and images collected from early particle accelerators, such as those at Cern and Fermilab
What is Einsteinium?
Einsteinium was discovered as a component of the debris of the first hydrogen bomb explosion
in 1952, and named after Albert Einstein. Its most common isotope einsteinium-253 (half-life 20.47
days) is produced artificially from decay of californium-253 in a few dedicated high-power nuclear
reactors with a total yield on the order of one milligram per year. The reactor synthesis is followed by
a complex process of separating einsteinium-253 from other actinides and products of their decay.
Other isotopes are synthesized in various laboratories, but at much smaller amounts, by bombarding
heavy actinide elements with light ions. Owing to the small amounts of produced einsteinium and the
short half-life of its most easily produced isotope, there are currently almost no practical applications
for it outside basic scientific research. In particular, einsteinium was used to synthesize, for the first
time, 17 atoms of the new element mendelevium in 1955.
Einsteinium is a soft, silvery, paramagnetic metal. Its chemistry is typical of the late actinides, with a
preponderance of the +3 oxidation state; the +2 oxidation state is also accessible, especially in solids.
The high radioactivity of einsteinium-253 produces a visible glow and rapidly damages its crystalline
metal lattice, with released heat of about 1000 watts per gram. Difficulty in studying its properties is
due to einsteinium-253's decay to berkelium-249 and then californium-249 at a rate of about 3% per
day. The isotope of einsteinium with the longest half-life, einsteinium-252 (half-life 471.7 days)
would be more suitable for investigation of physical properties, but it has proven far more difficult to
produce and is available only in minute quantities, and not in bulk.[1] Einsteinium is the element with
the highest atomic number which has been observed in macroscopic quantities in its pure form, and
this was the common short-lived isotope einsteinium-253.[2]
Like all synthetic transuranic elements, isotopes of einsteinium are very radioactive and are
considered highly dangerous to health on ingestion.[3]
Timeline Discovery of Einsteinium
Einsteinium was discovered

unexpectedly along with fermium in debris
from the first large hydrogen bomb test, which
1952 took place in the Pacific on October 31 1952.
The debris was collected on filter papers
attached to drone airplanes that flew through
the explosion area.
Einsteinium was produced in a

1961 weighable quantity (0.01 micrograms) for the
first time.
The pure metal was isolated for the

first time
1970

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Einsteinium, 99Es

Pronunciation /aɪnˈstaɪniəm/ (eyen-STY-nee-əm)

Appearance silvery; glows blue in the dark

Atomic number (Z) 99

The element is named after Albert Einstein.

Appearance and Characteristics

Timeline Discovery of Einsteinium

Einsteinium was discovered

Einsteinium was produced in a

The pure metal was isolated for the

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