In class we've been learning about different aspects of the Periodic Table of the Elements, such as how and why it's organized the way it is. This week we read an article talking about four new super-heavy elements that will be added to the Periodic Table, about how they are made and named. It is important to read articles like this so we can understand how any new elements can be discovered, named, and eventually added to the table.
In the article I read this week there were a number of new scientific terms mentioned in the text. Knowing the full definition of these terms is important to fully understanding my blog post, so they're defined below.
An element is something that cannot be broken down into a different substance.
Matter is something that takes up space.
An atom is the smallest possible unit of an element.
A nucleus is the positively charged center of an atom.
Protons are positively charged particles.
Neutrons are neutrally charged particles.
When something is unstable, it is unbalanced, or can lose mass quickly.
Decay means to fall apart.
The four elements, discovered in January 2016 by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and a Japanese team led by Kosuke Morita, the new elements were originally known as ununtrium (113), ununpentium (115), ununseptium (117), and ununoctium (118). Later, element 116 was renamed Livermorium, after the name of the lab where it was created. It can be hard for scientists to tell whether the elements they discover are truly new, because they only exist for less than a second. As well, it is not the element itself that the researchers study. In the article, it says that "Scientists never observe unstable elements directly. Rather, they know they briefly existed because they are able to measure their decay products." This means that scientists can only use the decay product of their element to determine whether their element is new, which is why it could be hard to interpret their results.
Two of the characteristics that make super-heavy elements such as 113, 115, 117, and 118 unique are their unstability, and how they are created in specialized laboratories. They are made by smashing two particles together, both of which are specially selected for their amount of protons and neutrons. The two particles rarely stick, so it can take 10 quintillion tries for the experiment to succeed.
Elements names are traditionally chosen by the scientist who discovers them, However, before they receive their names, their names are the Latin word equivalent of their number. In the article, it says that "...these elements have been known by their generic names... Their confirmation paves the way for them to get permanent names. Traditionally, this honor falls to the researchers who first found them." This means that the researchers have to wait until their element is confirmed before they can replace it's Latin name with one of their own choosing.
Overall, understanding how new elements are created and named is very important to fully understanding the different aspects of the Periodic Table. Learning about elements such as 113, 115, 117, and 118 is helpful for reaching this understanding.
