Education
Seventh Row of Periodic Table Finally Complete
So here’s something new for Chemistry-loving students. Quite some of their confusions will now be cleared and this discovery can lead to many more!
So here’s something new for Chemistry-loving students. Quite some of their confusions will now be cleared and this discovery can lead to many more!
Seventh row of the periodic table is now complete as four new elements have been discovered. These elements, tentavily named Ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium based on the number of protons each contains in its nucleus, are added by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), at slots 113, 115, 117 and 118 on 30 December 2015.
After 2011, the year when elements 114 and 116 were ratified, this is the first time that something is added to the periodic table.
The credit for the discovery of ununtrium (113) was given to a team of scientist from Japan’s RIKEN Institute, while for the discovery of ununpentium (115), ununseptium (117) and ununoctium (118), it were the scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (Russia), California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Professor Jan Reedijk, President of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC, said, “The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row.”
He continued to say, “IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalising names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118).”
All the four elements were discovered by smashing lighter nuclei with each other and then tracking the radioactive decay of superheavy elements.