Element Facts
SYMBOL
Lr
ATOMIC NO.
103
ATOMIC WEIGHT
266
CATEGORY
Actinide
PERIOD
Period 7
GROUP
Group 3
Discovery & History
Lawrencium was first synthesised in 1961 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Almon Larsh, and Robert Latimer by bombarding californium-252 with boron ions. Named after Ernest Orlando Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron particle accelerator and founder of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939. Lawrencium is the last actinide element — element 103 fills the final slot of the actinide series.
Where It's Used
Lawrencium has no practical applications. It is the subject of fundamental nuclear chemistry research, particularly regarding the chemical behaviour of the heaviest actinides and the boundary with the transactinides. In 2015, researchers measured an ionisation energy of lawrencium using a gas-jet technique.
Can You Sell It?
Why QuickStop Metals doesn’t buy Lawrencium:
Lawrencium is a synthetic transuranic element produced in particle accelerators in atom-at-a-time quantities. Subject to nuclear safeguards and regulations. No commercial use or scrap trade is possible.
Price Guide
No commercial market exists. Lawrencium cannot be produced in macroscopic quantities.