Discovery of new super-heavy element

Dear readers!

Here is my new blog post, which is related to the recent discovery in the field of chemistry. This blog is devoted to the discovery of new super-heavy element Ununseptium.

By the end of this blog you will know:

         

          1)      When and by whom the element was discovered.

          2)      The process of synthesis of new element.

          3)      What is the worldwide significance and the limitations of the element.

History of 117 element

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Element 117 of periodic table was firstly discovered in 2009 by researchers from Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Russia, but synthesis of new atom was declared invalid.  The element obtained recognition only in 2010, with efforts of international team hosted by Professor Christoph Dullmann  and collaboration of 72 scientists from different countries in the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Germany.

The process of discovery

First of all, Ununseptium belongs to the super-heavy elements, because it has atomic number 117. All elements that have atomic number greater than 103 are called super-heavy. Atomic number indicates the number of protons (positively charged particles), along with protons atom contains electrons (negatively charged particles) and neutrons (neutral). Structure of the atom is represented by nucleus made of protons and neutrons, and electrons moving around the nucleus.

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Ununseptium element does not exist naturally; consequently, it was synthesized by fusion of nuclei of two different elements. In other words, by adding protons from nucleus of one element to the nucleus of another element. In that experiment, calcium-48 and berkelium-249 isotopes were used.  Berkelium-249 was bombarded with calcium-48. Particularly, calcium ions were accelerated and these high speed ions crashed into berkelium-249 resulting in ununseptium-294 isotope (some protons were lost during bombarding). In order to understand this concept better, imagine two snowballs. One snowball, which has high speed bumps another one, which causes merging of these two snowballs.  This fusion can be accompanied by splitting off small particle of the snowball.  

However, actual experiment is more complicated and was performed in the special GSI accelerator, more information about it you can find here.

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Significance and limitations

The most important achievement of that discovery is that it demonstrated that the science does not depend only on naturally occurring elements. Which means, that people can make new elements from already existing and create other super-heavy elements.  Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of super-heavy elements is that they have very short half-life. Half-life is the time, which is required to atom to decay, or when only the half of the atom remains. This means, that such super-heavy elements do not exist for a long time and cannot be used in industry currently. Moreover, synthesizing elements by using this method requires large energy expenditures.

To sum up, in this blog I have explained the discovery of 117 element of Periodic table, Ununseptium, and what is the importance of that discovery. Furthermore, the main limitation of super-heavy elements was given.

References

Chemical half-life. (n.d.). The Free Dictionary. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Chemical+half-life

Element 117, discovered by Laboratory, one step closer to being named. (2014, May 2). Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from https://www.llnl.gov/news/element-117-discovered-laboratory-one-step-closer-being-named

Isotope. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/isotope

Newly discovered element 117 is a step toward useful super-heavy elements | ExtremeTech. (n.d.). ExtremeTech. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/181807-new-element-117-is-a-step-toward-useful-super-heavy-elements

PRESS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS. (n.d.).International team of researchers observes new superheavy element 117. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/17241_ENG_HTML.php

Scientists Discover New Element: Ununseptium, The Heaviest Element Ever Made - From Quarks to Quasars. (n.d.).From Quarks to Quasars. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/scientists-discover-new-element-meet123/

Superheavy. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/superheavy

Ununseptium Element Facts. (n.d.).Chemicool. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.chemicool.com/elements/ununseptium.html

Prominent researcher killed her ex-husband with Ethylene Glycol

Dear readers, welcome to my second blog post, devoted to the uses of ethylene glycol and its toxic properties. By the end of the blog, you will know:

•  What is ethylene glycol and its properties?
•  What are the uses of ethylene glycol?
•  Why is it toxic?
•   What are the symptoms of intoxication?

According to the news, on 29^th of September high-profile cancer researcher Ana Gonzalez-Angulo was sentenced to 10 years for poisoning her ex-husband with ethylene glycol. As prisoner confirms she alloyed automotive antifreeze to his coffee, which resulted in the breakdown of kidney function and has led to death. One of the main components of freezing liquid in cars is ethylene glycol.

What is ethylene glycol and its properties?

Ethylene glycol is a chemical. It is a liquid at a room temperature, without any odor or color, has a sweet taste. It belongs to the class of organic compounds, called alcohols. Organic compounds are those that consist mostly of hydrogen and carbon atoms. Alcohols are compounds that contain carbon and hydrogen along with the oxygen. The most popular representative of alcohols is ethanol. Below are structures of ethanol and ethylene glycol, they have similar chemical properties.

Figure 1.Structure of ethanol.
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Figure 2. Structure of ethylene glycol.
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What are the uses of ethylene glycol?

Ethylene glycol is widely used in daily life. As it was already mentioned, it is the main component of automotive antifreeze. 

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Antifreeze is the liquid, which is used to protect cars from overheating at hot days, and prevents the freezing of motor on cold winter days. Ethylene glycol is in our clothes, cosmetics, pens, plastics, paints, bottles and even in shopping bags.

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 Ethylene glycol has such a wide range of applications because when molecules combine with each other, they can form very long chains, which are called polymers, or fibers. These fibers are easy to manipulate, they can be assigned in various shapes. For example, one of the well-known polymers is polyethylene, which is used to produce polyethylene bags, or just shopping bags.

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However, ethylene glycol can also be used with harmful purposes, as a chemical weapon, due to its high toxicity.

Why is it toxic?

There is a whole cycle, involving break down of ethylene glycol molecule. The function of liver is breaking down molecules to produce energy, all of the blood in body passes through liver to kidneys, which filtrates it. In liver, massive molecules of ethylene glycol are decomposed into smaller molecules, including toxins. Toxins are poisonous substances released by an organism. Blood contaminated with toxins goes to the kidney and disturbs its regular functioning.

Let us think of an analogy for better understanding of this process. For example, imagine a war, when foreign army (ethylene glycol molecules) invades a country. The local army tries to defeat the enemy, but instead of destroying the invaders, they only split up enemy forces (formation of toxins). These separated parts of the army begin to attack the country on several battlefields and crashes the opponent. Consequently, when the war is lost, country is destroyed and cannot exist anymore.

Intoxication is very complicated process, and due to the word limit it cannot be described more deeply, you can find more information here.

Symptoms of poisoning:

• First of all, ethylene glycol gives the same effect as after drinking ethanol (alcohol), light ebriosity
• Few hours later, others symptoms including nausea, vomiting, convulsions will appear
• Finally, it can lead to the coma, organ failure and death

       To sum up, now you are aware of the properties of ethylene glycol, how it is used in real life and warning signs of intoxication.

       

      References

"An introduction to alcohols." an introduction to       alcohols.http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/alcohols/back.. (accessed October 9, 2014).

     

     Banerjee, Trina. "Ethylene glycol poisoning." Ethylene glycol poisoning.http://medicine.med.nyu.edu/nephrology/files/med_neph.. (accessed October 9, 2014).

     Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "ETHYLENE GLYCOL: systemic agent." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/EmergencyResponseCard.. (accessed October 8, 2014).

"    Common menu bar links." Ethylene glycol.http://www.chemicalsubstanceschimiques.gc.ca/fact-fai.. (accessed October 8, 2014).

Farlex. "Toxins." The Free Dictionary.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Toxins (accessed October 9, 2014).

"    Researcher imprisoned for poisoning ex-lover." RSC RSS.http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/10/researcher-.. (accessed October 9, 2014).

     U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Ethylene glycol intoxication: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine.http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/00077.. (accessed October 8, 2014).

"What is Ethylene Glycol?." What is Ethylene Glycol?.http://www.americanchemistry.com/ProductsTechnology/E.. (accessed October 8, 2014).

Chemical nomenclature

Welcome to my “Entertaining Chemistry” blog. My name is Aiym Bigazy. I am a chemistry major student at Nazarbayev University. I am interested in chemistry, because chemistry is a central science; hence other sciences, particularly physics and biology, are tightly connected with it. Moreover, chemistry is indefeasible part of our lives, as every object surrounding us has a chemical nature. In this blog I would like to introduce chemical nomenclature, which is used for naming compounds.

First of all, chemical nomenclature is a set of rules to name the compounds established by IUPAC. IUPAC abbreviates as International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. These rules were designed because of difficulties in naming of infinite number of compounds. These include, organic and inorganic substances, which can be composed of various elements with different properties, for example, metals and nonmetals, different oxidation states, etc. 

Figure 1. Periodic table of chemical compounds.
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Let’s begin with the brief explanation of elements in Periodic Table. Vertical columns marked as IA-VIIIA are called groups. The elements of first group are called alkaline metals and they consist of lithium, sodium, potassium, etc. The second group elements are called alkaline-earth metals, these are beryllium, magnesium and others. Groups IIIB- VIIIB (red colored) are transition metals, which have several oxidation states (charges). Beginning from IVA to VIA are nonmetals; and Fluoride, Chloride, Bromide, Iodide, Astatine are called halogens. The last group elements are the least reactive and called Nobel gases. Names and symbols of all elements you can see here.

According to Zumdahl and DeCoste, there are following rules in naming compounds:

1)  In binary ionic compounds (consist of positive and negative ions), firstly, cation (positive) is named, secondly, anion (negative) is named. Cations are usually metals, anions are nonmentals.

                                    Metal + Nonmetal + ide suffix

If metal  forms more than one cation (with different oxidation states), then Roman numeral showing the oxidation state of cation is added. For example, NaCl is called sodium chloride, because sodium has charge +1 only, whereas CuCl₂ is called copper (II) chloride, because copper can have charge +1 and +2, in this case it is +2.

Metal + Roman numeral + Nonmetal + ide suffix

    2)  If a compound contains more than two elements it is called polyatomic, they are named in the same manner, but names of polyatomic ions are also established by IUPAC and should be memorized. For example, Na₂SO₄ is sodium sulfate, Mg(OH)₂ is magnesium hydroxide; here is the list of polyatomic ions. 

     

      3)  Binary covalent compounds consist of two nonmetals, but their names are similar with ionic compounds. However, there are some rules that should be applied to naming covalent compounds:

•        Firstly, the element at the beginning of the formula is named (cation)
•       Secondly, negative ion is named, which is the second element
•       When a compound contains two nonmetals or more, to determine the number of atoms of each element prefixes are used:

  

  Figure 2. Prefixes determining the numbers.
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For example, P₂O₅  is called diphosphorus pentoxide, and N₂O₄ is dinitrogen tetroxide.

Moreover, there is more complicated system of naming organic compounds and due to the word limit it will not be covered in this blog.

Summary:

 

Figure 3. Naming chemical compounds.
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References

"Formula, Name." http://www.ars-   chemia.net/Classes/68/Notes/List_of_polyatomic_ions.pdf. http://www.ars-chemia.net/Classes/68/Notes/List_of_polyatomic_ions.pdf (accessed September 30, 2014).

"Welcome to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry." IUPAC.   http://www.iupac.org/ (accessed September 30, 2014).

Zumdahl, Steven S., and Donald J. DeCoste. Chemical principles. Seventh ed. Brooks: Cengage Learning, 2013.