117

Add another seat at the periodic table!

The periodic table has been extended, with the announcement of the confirmation of the yet to be named element 117.

In 2010 a US Russian collaboration announced they had produced atoms of an element with 117 protons, filling a gap that appeared when 118 was made four years earlier. However, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) insists on corroboration by two independent teams before it allows new elements to be added to the Periodic Table, although a temporary name of Ununseptium is in use until confirmation has been made. It has taken four years, but this appears to have finally arrived.

"Making element 117 is at the absolute boundary of what is possible right now," says Professor David Hinde of the Australian National University, one of the authors of a paper published today in Physics Review Letters. "That's why it's a triumph to create and identify even a few of these atoms."

Hinde was part of a team at the GSI laboratory in Germany who fused calcium 48 and berkelium 249. This is not easy, because berkelium 249 is both hard to produce in substantial quantities and has a half life of 320 days...

In general large atoms have shorter half lives, that is decay more quickly through radiation, as their masses become greater. However, what are know as islands of stability exist, and the authors believe the one hour half life of 270Db "marks an important step towards the observation of even more long-lived nuclei of superheavy elements located on an 'island of stability.'"

...Element 117 is the most recent of six elements first announced by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia. Of these 113, 115, and 118 remain unconfirmed, although claims have been made for the first two.

Element 117 has been produced in such small quantities that it's not easy to study, and it's certainly not about to change the world with widespread use. Still, this is pretty damn cool.

[Via Misty.]