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New chemical element

11.05.2014

The Helmholtz Center for the Study of Heavy Ions (Darmstadt, Germany) synthesized four ununseptium atoms, thereby confirming the existence of the 117th element of the periodic table.

Ununseptium was first obtained at the Russian Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in 2009. For the synthesis of the 117th element, a target of the 97th element, berkelium-249, obtained at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA), was bombarded with calcium-48 ions at an accelerator. Ununseptium formally belongs to the halogens, but its chemical properties have not yet been studied and may differ from those characteristic of this group of elements.

During a long (more than half a year) experiment, 6 events of "birth" of the 117th element were registered. The decay properties of the isotopes of ununseptium and its daughter products - the isotopes of elements 115, 113, 111, 109, 107 and 105 - are direct experimental proof of the existence of "islands of stability" of superheavy nuclei.

Despite the achievement of Russian scientists, the existence of the 117th element was not recognized by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Chemistry, since it required independent confirmation. Now this element has been synthesized by German researchers.

The heaviest natural element - uranium - has an atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus) 92. Elements heavier than uranium are obtained in nuclear reactors, the heaviest of them is fermium with number 100. All heavier elements were obtained at accelerators in reactions accelerated to high energies ions with target nuclei. As a result, nuclei of superheavy elements are formed, which exist for a very short time, and then decay. Thus, the half-life of ununseptium is 78 milliseconds.

Note that from 2000 to 2010 physicists from the Flerov laboratory at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, near Moscow, have synthesized for the first time the six heaviest elements with atomic numbers from 113 to 118. Two of them have already been officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and have received the names flerovium (114) and livermorium (116 ). The application for the discovery of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 is currently under consideration.

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In previous experiments, the pressure was limited to 400 gigapascals, but then the researchers came up with the idea to use not a flat, but a toroidal (donut-like) anvil. This allowed it to withstand much higher loads, and at 425 gigapascals, the experiment was finally crowned with success: hydrogen began to show the first metallic properties.

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Metallic hydrogen is a potential fuel that will not only radically change the earth's energy, but will also give us a chance to carry out space flights, which so far can only be dreamed of. Now scientists are aiming to get enough metallic hydrogen to carry out some of the necessary tests and experiments. The ultimate goal is, of course, to develop a cheap and relatively simple way to produce this amazing substance on an industrial scale.

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