how do you edit the periodic table?
Getting to name an element on the periodic table, or having an element named after you is a huge honor for a scientist. It’s one of those very human ways that scientists pay their respect to each other and tip their hats to the pioneers, role models and mentors. But as a recent Popular Science article shows, actually naming the elements today is a very tricky business. Since only one lab issued the official element names between 1940 and 1956, editing the periodic table used to be a simple affair. Then, after a simultaneous discovery and a big clash over who gets to name the 102nd element, labs across the world named about eight elements with no regard for other discoverers. Finally, in 1997, chemists reached a consensus and the periodic table was once again standardized. Two years later, they developed a committee to keep it that way in the future, the IUPAC.
Now, there’s the 112th element to name and it’s discoverers are considering a something from the classical world. However, this element is a rather confusing one. It doesn’t occur in nature. The research team needed to fire zinc and lead into each other at relativistic speeds. Neither is this element durable by any stretch of the imagination. It’s half-life is just 240 microseconds. Only four atoms have actually been observed and it took a decade to come up with enough data to assure the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry that the element actually does form under the extraordinary stresses created in particle accelerators. And considering this, a question jumps to mind. What do chemists learn by making rapidly decaying, synthetic atoms?
Well, according to Sigurd Hofmann who lead the group which discovered Element 112 (known for now by the IUPAC provisional name ununbium), the goal was to find the very end of the periodic table. We know that the hydrogen atom is the lightest possible element in the universe. Just one electron orbiting around one proton. Take one of the components away and you no longer have an atom, just rogue particles. But on the other end of the spectrum, how heavy an atom could be is an open question. What’s the maximum amount of electrons, protons and neutrons an element can have and still exist for even an instant? Ununbium is one step towards finding a possible answer and that’s why the IUPAC is giving it a spot on the periodic table.
I know that atom’s stability depends on a fine balance within its core. When scientists get to form such an ephemeral piece of matter and come to the conclusion that yes, the 112nd element can last for a measurable amount of time, and just jump into trying to make new combinations for the 113rd element, aren’t they missing the possibility of finding a more stable form for the 112nd arrangement? The last numbers on the periodic table are isotopes; isn’t there any way to make another isotope that is more durable?
I never quite understood why the past-uranians have such a tiny life time, when just a few protons before they could last for thousands and thousands of years…
Good Morning!
I read the title of your post and the first thing that popped into my head was, “How do you READ the periodic table?” Ha! I’ve been taught. I forget. Started to just pass for today assuming this was out of my depth, then I remembered how gifted a writer you are. I’m glad I stuck around and read! I love this stuff. Thanks for making the circus-minds understand!
Have a Great One.
“arent they missing the possibility of finding a more stable form for the 112nd arrangement?”
I’m sure there will be a research team that will try to find out just that while other labs focus on finding that outer limit. However, I’m not sure if the IUPAC would recognize it as the same element…
“why do the past-uranians have such a tiny life time, when just a few protons before they could last for thousands and thousands of years”
The heaviest naturally occurring element is plutonium which has a half-life of 24,100 years. Past that, element half-lives tend to get shorter and shorter. Exactly why is out of my grasp, but it probably involves the forces which keep atoms stable.
Come to think of it, this is a great post idea. Thanks Vinicius!
Given how unstable the element is, I doubt much chemistry can be done with it.
I guess it would be of interest to physicists. The structure of the nucleus (protons and neutrons in various states interacting) is not understood as well as the atom (electron states around the nucleus).
It makes a nice point on the plot of proton number against neutron number
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NuclideMap_small_preview.jpg
but seems less useful on the periodic table.
Be welcome! I’m glad it pleases you adressing a curiosity my science teachers either never could or never wanted to satisfy.
=]
Ah, yes to read & comprendend those aspects of the Periodic Table!
First thing is note that part of the aspect of an element is that it is or forms [quote]arent they missing the possibility of finding a more stable form for the 112nd arrangement?[/quote]stability?
“Scientific EGO: a detour showing how grand (great we) they have become!”
Nice picture – 3D visualisation… I like how it looks.