Confirm the umseptio, item 117 of the Periodic Table

2014/05/14 Carton Virto, Eider - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

The second heavier element of the periodic table has been corroborated by an experiment carried out by an international team of researchers at the accelerator of the German center GSI: the unseptio. The formation of an unseptio of 117 protons has been achieved by launching a bundle of nuclei of the element calcium-48, formed by 20 protons, against the element berkelio-249, whose nucleus contains 97 protons. Specifically, two atoms of this superheavy element have been the result of the shock. Through the measurement of alpha-decay of atoms, this international group has confirmed that the element formed in the collision is the unseptio. As if it were not enough, the researchers have also discovered in the process the isotope laurentzio-266, result of the disintegration of the element dubnium-270. The results have been published in the journal Physics Review Letters.

These superheavy elements are extremely unstable and their duration is measured in milliseconds at most. For this reason, its creation and detection constitutes a great technical challenge. Unumseptio was created and detected in 2010 by researchers from the Dubna Nuclear Research Institute (Russia) and Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge (United States) laboratories. However, according to IUPAC regulations, the official approval of a new element requires an independent research team to ratify the first detection. This is what has been achieved now for the unseptio, so the element of 117 atomic numbers has obtained an official table in the periodic table, now the name is missing.