Even with the most intense ion beams and the largest available quantities of target isotope, about 10/sup 6/ atoms at a time is all the Md that can be produced for chemical studies. This lack of sufficient sample size coupled with the very short lifetimes of the few atoms produced has severely restricted the gathering and the broadness of our knowledge concerning the properties of Md and the heavier elements. To illustrate, the literature contains a mere eleven references to the chemical studies of Md, and none of these deal with bulk properties associated with the element bound in solid phases. Some of these findings are: Md was found to be more volatile than other actinide metals which lead to the belief that it is divalent in the metallic state; separation of Md from the other actinides can be accomplished either by reduction of Md/sup 3 +/ to the divalent state or by chromatographic separations with Md remaining in the tripositive state; extraction of Md/sup 2 +/ with bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid is much poorer than the extraction of the neighboring tripositive actinides; attempts to oxidize Md/sup 3 +/ with sodium bismuthate failed to show any evidence for Md/sup 4 +/; reductionmore » potential of Md/sup 3 +/ was found to be close to -0.1 volt; Md/sup 3 +/ can be reduced to Md(Hg) by sodium amalgams and by electrolysis; the electrochemical behavior of Md is very similar to that of Fm and can be summarized in the equation, Md/sup 2 +/ + 2e/sup -/ = Md(Hg) and E/sup 0/ = -1.50 V.; and Md cannot be reduced to a monovalent ion with Sm/sup 2 +/.« less