Alessandra Diaz                                                                                                             Earth Science IH

Current Event #2: "Super-Heavy Element 117 Confirmed"                                               May 22, 2014                                       

"Super Heavy Element 117 Confirmed." Super Heavy Element 117 Confirmed. Phys.org, 2 May 2014. Web. 22 May 2014. <http://phys.org/news/2014-05-superheavy-element.html>.

    

           With this upcoming addition to the periodic table, the heavier side of the table will now be even more crowded with the newly confirmed “super heavy” element 117. Although the scientific breakthrough has yet to have been named, element 117 is changing the face of super heavy element research. A research team from the German GSI Laboratory created atoms of element 117, which are the heaviest ever to be observed. Weighing forty percent higher than lead atoms, element 117 is put into the super heavy element category, along with all other elements with atomic numbers higher than 104. A huge international collaboration between seventy-two scientists and engineers, representing institutions from twelve nations worldwide.

            The majority of the elements forming the super heavy section are suspected to form part of a theoretical ‘island of stability.’ This nuclear physics theory accounts for an undiscovered set of extremely heavy isotopes of transuranian elements, pertaining to elements with higher atomic numbers than that of uranium: 92. This ‘island’ theorizes elements that are more stable than those closer to uranium, with far longer half-lives of minutes or days, although some optimists suggest half-lives lasting up to millions of years. Despite no super-heavy elements ever to be found in nature, those that are created still only last for a short time. 

            To produce element 117, a huge collaboration between such intricate technology, such as a nuclear accelerator, a nuclear detector, and an actinide isotope production separation facilities, were needed in the process. The American Oak Ridge National Laboratory provided the intense neutron irradiation process, followed by chemical separation and purification. In the end, 13 milligrams of the highly-purified bK-249 isotope were turned into a target, which was able to withstand the high-power calcium-ion beams of the GSI accelerator in Germany. Atoms of element 117 were separated from mass amounts of other nuclear reaction products, which were identified through their radioactive decay. An American research group re-launched a campaign for creating berkelium, a transuranian radioactive element. After performing a sufficient amount of 22 milligrams, the substance was cooled for 90 days before chemically purified for the same duration of time. Having a half-life of 330 days, half of the berkelium would not longer have been berkelium in less than a year. As such, great international collaborative work was needed to transfer the substance across the world to use the best facilities available. After being placed on a titanium film and being sent to the world’s best particle accelerator for super-heavy elements, the decay of element 117 was finally detected through two chains of odd-odd isotope and of an odd-even isotope chain (odd pertaining to less stable elements). Through this process, two other previously unknown elements were identified, being among the longest-lived super-heavy isotopes known. However, the longer an isotope lives, the harder it is to reliably identify it. That being said, an improvement in the way in which TASCA performed the experiment contradicted this prior belief by better separating unwanted background products, which allowed for more sensitive identification of super-heavy nuclei.

            The discovery of element 117 opens numerous doors for the theory of the ‘island of stability,’ as it gives rise to questions of even longer-lives isotopes and has been a huge lead forward in the path to the production and detection of elements situated on the “island” of super-heavy elements.

            The discovery of elements as heavy as 117 is proving to scientists every day to continue testing the limits of the periodic table. Discoveries such as this one help scientists better understand how nuclei are held together, whose answers could then be applied to help solve national needs, such as stockpile stewardship and homeland security. Such discoveries would increase the reliability and safety of the nation’s nuclear detectors and nuclear stockpile. Although scientists have yet to find a direct use for super-heavy elements, heavy elements are used in smoke detectors and in nuclear weapons. With more experimenting on element 117, scientists hope to discover the application of element 117, along with other super-heavy elements, as their uses are expected to be very practical, as they are expected to be far more stable than the periodic trends suggest.

            Overall, I thought the article was well written and to the point, but that being said, it lacked the explanation necessary to fully comprehend the article. Many terms and ideas involved were highly complex and required much outside research, which did make the article quite difficult to comprehend, as no explanations were given in the article about the importance of these super-heavy elements or about their life applications. However, the article was informative, intriguing, and well versed. The topic at hand interested me personally, which created an immediate sense of interest in what was being read. Had the big picture questions been addressed, the article as a whole would have been far more captivating. It is also possible that some of the ideas I would have liked the article to touch upon have still gone unanswered, as most of the research surrounding these elements and their uses is theoretical. Also, the reasons why the elements is now confirmed instead of earlier is not quite clear. Since the element is so new in its discovery, little information is to be found regarding the exact reasonings as to why it is now considered confirmed and the reasons it is now given that title, since the article said that some scientists said that more tests should be conducted before giving the element a name. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the content of the article and found the topic very interesting. Despite a lack of explanation in some areas, the article as a whole kept me alert and wanting to read on and continuing reading about more recent research on element 117, other super-heavy elements, and on improvements regarding the theory of the ‘island of stability.’