Confirmation of four new elements completes seventh row of periodic table

Likewise, “Ununpentium” is the temporary name for 115, 117 is “Ununseptium”, and element 118 has an ‘oct-‘ in its name. “For over seven years”, Morita said, “we continued to search for data conclusively identifying element 113, but we just never saw another event”.

Discovered by scientists in Japan, Russia and the United States, elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are the first to be added to the table in four years.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced the discovery of the new elements by researchers from Japan, Russia and the US on December 30 in statement released on their website.

Hmmm, so what would you name these four new elements? The discovery teams, which are made up of Japanese, Russians, and Americans, will name the elements.

The president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry ), Professor Jan Reedijk told The Guardian that, “The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row”. All four are highly unstable superheavy metals that exist for only a fraction of a second.

Riken Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, the organization whose team is credited with the research and existence of element 113, earlier stated that japonium could be a proposed name for the new element now being referred to as ununtrium. Elements are numbered by the protons they have in their nucleus, and Elements 114 (flerovium) and 116 (livermorium) had previously been confirmed and named. The group first claimed to have created the element in 2004, but there was still some uncertainty at that time because of the instability of one of its decay products. In fact, global rules actually allow for names to be based on mythological creatures, minerals, scientists, or places. After finalizing two-letter symbols, they will be presented for five-month public review. When Element 112 was discovered before this, it was formally named “Copernicium”, to honour Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Every science stream student can recall how they devise ingenious ways to memorise the rows of chemical compounds on the periodic table as they prepared to face their Chemistry examinition.