What is "mendelevium"

mendelevium \men*de*le"vi*um\ (m[e^]n*d[e^]*l[=e]"v[=e]*[u^]/m), a. [From Dmitri Mendeleyev, discoverer of the periodic law.] (Chem.) an unstable radioactive element discovered in 1955 and produced artificially only in very small quantities; symbol Md (also Mv). It is a transuranic element with atomic number 101. Isotopes 255, 256, 257, and 258 have been prepared. Md258, the longest-lived, has a half-life of two months.
--HCP61

1955, Modern Latin, in honor of Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev.

n. A transuranic chemical element (''symbol'' Md, ''formerly'' Mv) with atomic number 101.

n. a radioactive transuranic element synthesized by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles (Md is the current symbol for mendelevium but Mv was formerly the symbol) [syn: Md, Mv, atomic number 101]

Mendelevium is a synthetic element with chemical symbol Md (formerly Mv) and atomic number 101. A metallic radioactive transuranic element in the actinide series, it is the first element that currently cannot be produced in macroscopic quantities through neutron bombardment of lighter elements. It is the antepenultimate actinide and the ninth transuranic element. It can only be produced in particle accelerators by bombarding lighter elements with charged particles. A total of sixteen mendelevium isotopes are known, the most stable being Md with a half-life of 51 days; nevertheless, the shorter-lived Md (half-life 1.27 hours) is most commonly used in chemistry because it can be produced on a larger scale.

Mendelevium was discovered by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles in 1955, the same method still used to produce it today. It was named after Dmitri Mendeleev, father of the periodic table of the chemical elements. Using available microgram quantities of the isotope einsteinium-253, over a million mendelevium atoms may be produced each hour. The chemistry of mendelevium is typical for the late actinides, with a preponderance of the +3 oxidation state but also an accessible +2 oxidation state. Owing to the small amounts of produced mendelevium and all of its isotopes having relatively short half-lives, there are currently no uses for it outside of basic scientific research.