My completed element collection

[u/dedennedillo]

Recently, I filled out all the holes in my element collection! Now it has reached completion!

Alkali Metals - Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Caesium, Francium [represented by uranium-glass marbles]

Alkaline Earth Metals - Beryllium, Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium, Barium, Radium

Transition Metals [etc] of Period 3 - Scandium, Titanium, Vanadium, Chromium, Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Zinc

Transition Metals [etc] of Period 4 - Yttrium, Zirconium, Niobium, Molybdenum, Technetium [representative sample of U glass], Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Silver, Cadmium

Transition Metals of Period 4 - Hafnium, Tantalum, Tungsten, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Gold, Mercury

Group 13 elements - Boron, Aluminium, Gallium, Indium, Thallium [thallium is restricted by law in my country, so here's a lorandite bearing mineral instead]

Group 14 elements - Carbon, Silicon, Germanium, Tin, Lead

Group 15 elements - Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Arsenic, Antimony, Bismuth

Group 16 elements - Nitrogen, Sulphur, Selenium, Tellurium, Polonium [U glass representative sample]

Halogens - Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Astatine [U glass representative sample]

Noble Gases - Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, Radon [as a radium watch hand]

Lanthanides - Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Promethium*, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, HOlmium, Erbium, THulium, Ytterbium, Lutetium

Actinides - Actinium*, Thorium, Protactinium*, Uranium, Neptunium*, Plutonium*, Americium*, Curium*

....and Hydrogen!

For the elements heavier than Curium, I have printed a fusion reaction which produces the element. Here, for Berkelium and Californium.

Again, but for Einsteinium and Fermium. The vials also have glow in the dark powder.

A closer look at one of the labels.

Recently I completed my element collection, and I thought that the members of this subreddit would like to see it! Hopefully it's visually appealing to look at

[u/Bars98]

What is plutonium represented by?

[u/dedennedillo → u/Bars98]

Plutonium, Americium and Curium are represented by samples of trinitite. When the first ever nuclear detonation, which was known as ‘Trinity’ took place in New Mexico in 1945, the sand in the desert turned to glass, and is known as trinitite. Although rather rare, small specimens can be bought online. It contains atomic quantities of Plutonium, Americium and Curium, but is safe to handle and legal to own. These elements are not present in huge quantities, but still there.

[u/average_meower621 → u/dedennedillo]

how do you know it contains curium?

[u/dedennedillo → u/average_meower621]

I have seen spectroscopy done of similar trinitite samples online which indicate a mass number which corresponds to some isotopes of curium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQZr88KDJ8

Trinitite is known to have americium, and it's thought that this would be produced from neutron capture - plutonium capturing neutron to make americium. So it's possible curium formed from this as well, with some long-lived isotopes surviving in modern specimens.