Periodic table of the chemical elements
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94 Pu,Plutonium
Actinides · Solid
Atomic mass [244] mass number of the most stable isotope
94
Average mass of an atom in unified atomic mass units (1 u is 1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom). Accounts for the natural mix of the element’s isotopes.
Number of the vertical column, 1 to 18 in IUPAC numbering. Elements in a group share the same outer-shell layout, so their properties are alike.
Number of the horizontal row. Usually equal to the number of electron shells in the atom; palladium is the exception, with four shells in period 5.
The subshell (s, p, d or f) that receives the last electrons in the usual filling order; it divides the table into four blocks. Real atoms sometimes differ: lanthanum starts the f-block but has no f electrons.
How electrons are arranged in subshells. The bracket stands for the previous noble gas; the superscript is the number of electrons in a subshell.
Number of electrons in each shell, from the nucleus outwards.
Temperature at which the solid turns liquid at standard pressure. Helium, carbon and arsenic do not melt at normal pressure: helium needs about 25 atm, carbon and arsenic turn straight into vapour.
Temperature at which the liquid boils at standard pressure. For carbon and arsenic, the temperature at which the solid turns straight into vapour (sublimation).
Mass of one cubic centimetre of the substance. For gases, at 0 °C and standard pressure.
How strongly an atom pulls electrons towards itself in a chemical bond. On the Pauling scale it runs from 0.79 for caesium to 3.98 for fluorine.
Energy needed to remove the most loosely bound electron from an atom. The lower it is, the more easily the element gives up an electron, which is typical of metals.
Energy released when a neutral atom gains an electron. Highest for the halogens. Noble gases, nitrogen and some metals form no stable negative ion.
Half the length of a single covalent bond between two atoms of the element. It shows the size of an atom inside a molecule or crystal: 76 pm for carbon, 132 pm for iron.
Charges the atom would have in its compounds if all its bonds were ionic; the main ones are listed.
Plutonium (Pu) is a chemical element with atomic number 94. It sits in period 7 of the periodic table, in the f-block. It is an actinide. At room temperature it is a solid. It has no standard atomic weight; the mass number of its most stable isotope is 244.
Plutonium is named after Pluto, which was then counted as the planet beyond Neptune, so the three elements uranium, neptunium and plutonium follow the planets. Glenn Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Joseph Kennedy and Arthur Wahl made it at Berkeley in 1940–41 by bombarding uranium with deuterons. Because plutonium-239 could fuel an atomic bomb, the discovery was kept secret until after the Second World War.
Plutonium is made in nuclear reactors, where uranium-238 captures neutrons and turns into it. Only the faintest traces exist in nature.
Plutonium-239 is the explosive of nuclear weapons: the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 was made of it. It is also burned as fuel in some nuclear reactors. Plutonium-238 gives off steady heat for decades and powers space probes such as Voyager and the Curiosity rover.