Elements In Periodic Table

[bryandaledc]

Is there a latest discovery about the elements in the periodic table?

[joeweller]

discoveries of new elements is very hard and all the natural element has been discovered. nowadays scientists are working on artificial elements, elements that can not be found in nature but are made in laboratories.

[exchemist]

Is there a latest discovery about the elements in the periodic table?

Er, well, by definition there is always a latest discovery in any field.

 

But in the case of the Periodic Table there have been 4 new synthetic elements whose proposed names have recently been published for comment and approval: 

 

Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113,

Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115,

Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117, and

Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118.

 

These are p-block elements following on from the 4th period transition metals. But there is almost no chemistry available on these elements. Only a handful of atoms has been made and these decay too fast for any chemistry to be done on them. 

[fahrquad]

I really wonder what the point is of creating new elements that do not and cannot exist in nature.  Yes, you can create new elements by bombarding other elements with particles, but they don't exist naturally and don't exist in the lab for very long. Just because you can do something is not enough reason to do it.  We know it can be done, but it has no practical value.  I question the addition of the man-made elements to the table if they cannot be found in nature.

 

https://iupac.org/iupac-is-naming-the-four-new-elements-nihonium-moscovium-tennessine-and-oganesson/

[CraigD]

I really wonder what the point is of creating new elements that do not and cannot exist in nature.

I think the main point is to test nuclear chemistry theories.

 

One might be lead to think that with theories like QCD and QED, the behavior of any nucleus or atom can be exactly predicted, and that the folk creating brief-lived new elements are just showing off the capabilities of their particle colliders.

 

However, to the best of my knowledge, the calculations needed to use exact quantum mechanical theory to predict the behavior of superheavy nuclei are prohibitively difficult or computationally intense, so less exact theories are necessary to make approximate predictions. Simply learning the average decay time of a few atoms of such elements is useful in refining these theories.

 

My favorite prediction is Seaborg’s 50+ year “old island of stability” which hypothesizes that superheavy isotopes like [math]^{298}_{114}\mbox{Fl}[/math] would have half lives greater than 100,000,000 years. Nobody’s managed to synthesize an isotope on the island, though – the heaviest flerovium to date is [math]^{289}_{114}\mbox{Fl}[/math].

 

I've read some 1950s science fiction stories (names don’t come quickly to mind) about wonder materials made of long-lived isotopes of superheavy elements. They’ve proven over-optimistic.