The ever famous Periodic Table of Elements welcomed new members of the family. In 2015, four new elements have been added to the periodic table, making science textbooks across the world out of date.
The elements were verified and added by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), making the scientific chart’s seventh row officially complete.
The Super Heavy Elements.
The inclusion of the super-heavy man-made chemical elements temporarily named 113, 115, 117 and 118 are the first additions to the table since 2011, according to a statement from IUPAC.
Elements heavier than Rutherfordium (element 104) are referred to as superheavy. They are not found in nature, because they undergo radioactive decay to lighter elements.Those superheavy nuclei that have been created artificially have decay lifetimes between nanoseconds and minutes. But longer-lived (more neutron-rich) superheavy nuclei are expected to be situated at the centre of the so-called “island of stability”, a place where neutron-rich nuclei with extremely long half-lives should exist.Currently, the isotopes of new elements that have been discovered are on the “shore” of this island, since we cannot yet reach the centre.
“To scientists, this is of greater value than an Olympic gold medal,” Ryoji Noyori, Nobel laureate in chemistry, told the Guardian.
“The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row,” added professor Jan Reedijk, president of IUPAC’s inorganic chemistry division.
Getting to Know the Super Heavy Elements.
1. Element 113: UNUNTRIUM (Uut)
– Ununtrium is a chemical element with atomic number 113. It has a temporary name and temporary symbol Uut. It is a synthetic element (an element that can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature) and is extremely radioactive; its most stable known isotope, ununtrium-286, has a half-life of 20 seconds. It is also known as eka–thallium or simply element 113.
2. Element 115: UNUNPENTIUM (Uup)
– Ununpentium is the temporary name of a syntheticsuperheavy element in the periodic table that has the temporary symbol Uup and has the atomic number115. It is an extremely radioactive element; its most stable known isotope, ununpentium-289, has a half-life of only 220 milliseconds.[5] It is also known as eka–bismuth or simply element 115.
3. Element 117: UNUNSEPTIUM (Uus)
– Ununseptium is a superheavy artificial chemical element with an atomic numberof 117 and a temporary symbol of Uus. Also known as eka–astatine or element 117, it is the second-heaviest known element and penultimate element of the 7th period of the periodic table. As of 2016, fifteen ununseptium atoms have been observed: six when it was first synthesized in 2010, seven in 2012, and two in 2014.
4. Element 118: UNUNOCTIUM (Uuo)
– Ununoctium is IUPAC‘s temporary name[11] for the transactinide element with the atomic number 118 and temporary element symbolUuo. It is also known as eka-radon or element 118, and on the periodic table of the elements it is a p-block element and the last one of the 7th period. Ununoctium is currently the only synthetic member of group 18. It has the highest atomic number and highest atomic mass of all known elements.
The elements were created by smashing lighter nuclei into each other and then, according to the Independent, analyzing the radioactive decay which existed for a tiny fraction of a second afterwards.
“Now that we have conclusively demonstrated the existence of element 113, we plan to look to the uncharted territory of element 119 and beyond, aiming to examine the chemical properties of the elements in the seventh and eighth rows of the periodic table, and someday to discover the island of stability,” Kosuke said.
Reference: David Hinde (Australian National University)
www.earthsky.org, January 2016
By: Anna Liza De Leon-Salas | Master Teacher I | Limay National High School
