Pointless additions?

Two new elements are set to join the 118 already in the Periodic Table, but they decay so quickly – is there any point to discovering these heavy elements?

The Periodic Table has two new elements – they are yet to be officially named, but like anything after Plutonium, these elements are synthetic, and only last for a fraction of a second before undergoing radioactive decay.

It begs the question, what is the point of creating these new elements if they exist for such a short time?

The elements have the atomic number 114 and 116 and are currently dubbed Ununquadium and Ununhexium in a nod to their atomic number. They were part of a set of five new chemical elements submitted to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for approval. Claims for discovery of the elements 113, 115 and 118 were rejected on the grounds of not enough evidence for their existence.

Several teams set about ‘discovering’ Ununquadium in 1999, but a series of experiments between 2004 and 2006 provided the first clear evidence of the element’s existence. Of course, by discovering I mean smashing together two lighter elements – Plutonium and Calcium – to yield an element with the correct atomic number.

The same experiments – carried out by teams at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia – are credited with the discovery of Ununhexium. Researchers slammed together Curium – which has 96 protons – with the 20 proton Calcium, giving Ununhexium. This decayed with a fraction of a second to Ununquadium, which rapidly decayed to Copernicium, which has 112 protons and itself is a recent addition to the Periodic Table.

Their short-lived existence means scientists don’t know what these new elements can do. They don’t know how they behave, or what other elements they will react with.

“The quantities produced were very small and did not exist for very long,” said Dr Paul Karol, chairman of the Joint Working Party for the Discovery of New Elements who approved the new findings. “Elements need to remain stable for almost a minute before much useful observation can be made of them.”

If we can’t observe them then what is the point of creating them – just so we know we can? Well no – nuclear theorists believe that if they can reach an element with an atomic number 120 or more, these super-heavy atoms might remain in a stable condition for several decades and exhibit useful chemical properties.

“The discovery moves us closer to the island of stability,” said Karol. “Although 116 to 120 might seem like a small leap, it isn’t. But once we get there everything should get easier again. These elements should exist for longer, so we can observe their chemical properties.”

Karol said these super-heavy elements might be able to power nuclear power stations or be useful for nuclear weapons.

“If you get to 120 or 126, you might get something with an infinite half life,” Dr Terry Renner, executive director of IUPAC said. “If that was the case you could possibly manufacture compounds from the new materials that might be useful in computer technology and medicine. But no one really knows, and it’s really all theoretical.”

It might all be theoretical, but so were Einstein’s Theories of Relativity and we’re only just beginning to prove that some of these theories were correct. The push to discover heavier and heavier elements is going to continue at the same if not increasing rate – particularly if these super-heavy elements could provide an alternative to fossil fuels.

We might not know what they do or how they react, but these newly discovered elements are soon to be officially named. The teams behind the discoveries will be asked to suggest names and providing they’re not too odd, they’re likely to be accepted.

According to the vice director of the JINR, the team would like to name element 114 as Flerovium after Georgy Flerov, a soviet nuclear physicist, and element 116 as Moscovium after the Moscow Oblast where Dubna is located.

The most recent addition to the Periodic Table – Copernicium in March 2010 – was named after astronomer Copernicus, who was the first scientist to come up with the heliocentric model of the universe, putting the Sun at the centre.

Author: Kerry Taylor Smith - Staff Writer, Laboratory News