Rutherfordium (Rf)
"The Nucleus, a hero named after the physicist who discovered the atomic nucleus itself."
A memorable persona to anchor Rf in your mind.
23.2
Grams per cm³
N/A
Celsius (°C)
N/A
Radius (pm)
Daily Life Link
Rutherfordium has no everyday connection, used only in research.
Discovery & History
Year Discovered
1964
Discovered By
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR)
Origin of Name
"Rutherfordium is named in honour of New Zealand Chemist Ernest Rutherford, one of the first to explain the structure of atoms."
Technical Properties
Atomic Mass
[267] u
Standard State
solid
Boiling Point
N/A
Electron Configuration
[Rn] 5f146d27s2
1st Ionization Energy
N/A
Electron Affinity
N/A
Oxidation States
"Rutherfordium is a synthetic, highly radioactive metal."
Did You Know?
It is named in honor of Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand-born physicist who is considered the father of nuclear physics for discovering the atomic nucleus.
It is the first of the 'transactinide' or 'super-heavy' elements.
Its discovery was claimed by research teams at both the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
Because it is so unstable, its chemical properties can only be predicted and studied using a few atoms at a time in specialized experiments.