Stable
isotope
(none)
Relative
atomic mass
Mole
fraction
Ununtrium does not occur naturally in the Earth’s crust. Following earlier reports for the
discovery of this element, IUPAC invited the discovers of this element at RIKEN Nishina Center
for Accelerator-Based Science (Japan) to propose a name and symbol [678]. It was announced
June 2016 that the name nihonium and symbol Nh were proposed. Nihon is one of the two ways
to say “Japan” in Japanese, and literally mean “the Land of Rising Sun”. The name is proposed
to make a direct connection to the nation where the element was discovered. Ununtrium is the
first element to have been discovered in an Asian country. A five-month public review is now
set, expiring 8 November 2016, prior to the formal approval by the IUPAC Council.
The synthesis of ununtrium was first announced in 2004. The Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were able to produce two superheavy elements by bombarding a rotating 243 Am disc with an ion beam of 48 Ca in a U400
cyclotron (Figure 1). During the reaction, isotopes of ununpentium were synthesized and
decayed in a tenth of a second to ununtrium, which then decayed to roentgenium. Because the
atoms of ununpentium only existed for a tenth of a second, radiochemical proof was needed to
support its syntheses. A Swiss scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) performed the
radiochemical experiment by analyzing a copper plate that had been placed behind the 243 Am
disc in the cyclotron. This copper plate collected all ununpentium atoms that were synthesized
and was processed through liquid chromatography techniques that yielded five times more
ununpentium atoms than produced by fusion alone. The direct synthesis of ununtrium was
announced later that year by a team of Japanese scientists from the Cyclotron Center of the
RIKEN Research Institute. These scientists bombarded atoms of 209Bi with a beam of 70 Zn in a
RIKEN heavy-ion linear accelerator (RILAC) and gas-filled recoil ion separator (GARIS).
Ununtrium is the temporary (Latin/Greek) systematic name for element one-one-three assigned
by IUPAC to this element [679-682]. Ununtrium has no known isotopic applications aside from
scientific research.
Fig. 1: The cyclotron that was used to synthesize ununpentium and ununtrium. (Photographer:
Yuri Gripas Gamma Liaison) (Picture Source: Yuri Ts. Oganessian, Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research) [683, 684].
Glossary
atomic number (Z) – The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
cyclotron – an apparatus in which charged atomic and subatomic particles are accelerated by a
rapidly varying (radio frequency) electric field while following an outward spiral path in a
constant magnetic field. [return]
electron – elementary particle of matter with a negative electric charge and a rest mass of about
9.109 × 10–31 kg.
element (chemical element) – a species of atoms; all atoms with the same number of protons in
the atomic nucleus. A pure chemical substance composed of atoms with the same number of
protons in the atomic nucleus [703]. [return]
neutron – an elementary particle with no net charge and a rest mass of about 1.675 × 10–27 kg,
slightly more than that of the proton. All atoms contain neutrons in their nucleus except for
protium (1H).
proton – an elementary particle having a rest mass of about 1.673 × 10–27 kg, slightly less than
that of a neutron, and a positive electric charge equal and opposite to that of the electron. The
number of protons in the nucleus of an atom is the atomic number.
References
678. I. U. o. P. a. A. Chemistry. IUPAC IS NAMING THE FOUR NEW ELEMENTS
NIHONIUM, MOSCOVIUM, TENNESSINE, AND OGANESSON. 2016 June 22.
http://iupac.org/iupac-is-naming-the-four-new-elements-nihonium-moscovium-tennessine-andoganesson/
679. N. R. C. Canada. Periodic Table of the Elements: Ununtrium. National Research Council
Canada. 2014 Feb. 21. http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/education/elements/el/uut.html
680. L. A. N. Laboratory. Periodic Table of Elements: LANL- Ununtrium. Los Alamos
National Laboratory. 2014 Feb. 21. http://periodic.lanl.gov/113.shtml
681. Y. T. Oganessian, et al. Physical Review C. 76 011601-1 (2007).
10.1103/PhysRevC.76.011601
682. Y. Yano, Kase, M., and Morita, K. 11 (281) (2004).
683. Y. T. Oganessian, Utyonkov, V.K., and Moody, K.J. The synthesis of element 114
confirmed decades-old theoretical predictions of a little patch of nuclear stability in a sea of
short-lived superheavy nuclei. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. 2014 Feb. 21.
http://www.jinr.ru/section.asp?sd_id=103
684. Y. G. G. Liaison. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
703. I. U. o. P. a. A. Chemistry. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold
Book"). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).