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

Source

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.

Source

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.

Source

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