Translated material
One core per month
Russian scientists filled in the 117th cell in the periodic table
The persistent search for the missing element of the periodic table of chemical elements was crowned with success. Yesterday, scientists from the Flerov Laboratory of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna announced that, together with their American colleagues, they were able to obtain a new superheavy metal - the sought-after 117th element of the periodic table. Previously, the space between the 116th and 118th elements remained empty, although scientists had no doubt that the missing link would be found. The synthesis of another element, according to scientists, is very important for the further development of knowledge about the structure of the atomic nucleus and opens the way to obtaining long-lived elements.The new and as yet unnamed element differs from its “relatives”. It has a phenomenal lifespan for artificially created elements - 5.5 seconds. “The entire decay chain took us a day,” said the scientific director of the experiment, Academician Yuri Oganesyan, yesterday. “This is despite the fact that the elements synthesized earlier lived for hundredths of a second!”
Typically, transurans, elements located above uranium on the periodic table, whose atomic number is 92, live in millionths and billionths of a second. All of them are the result of artificial synthesis. Initially, they were obtained in nuclear reactors (up to the 112th), and later in accelerators when ions collided with the nuclei of a target element.
Academician Oganesyan, the author of the discovery of a number of superheavy elements of the periodic table, explained to Vremya Novostey that the synthesis of the 117th element has no practical significance. “It is important that this will expand the boundaries of scientific knowledge regarding the further existence of the material world,” says the academician. According to the scientist, the laboratory is not going to stop with this discovery. “We have been working in this direction for a long time, and it will continue as usual,” he said. Let us remind you that the Flerov Laboratory of JINR has already made a huge contribution to science. In 2000-2008, researchers from this powerful scientific team obtained new transurans with atomic numbers 113-116 and 118.
Scientists announced their intention not to stop there and synthesize the 117th element back in February 2009. And last summer they began active work. In addition to scientists from the laboratory in Dubna, the experiment involved the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (NIIAR) in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk Region, as well as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA. American colleagues synthesized berkelium especially for Russian scientists. This element is the rarest and very expensive, but it is this element that should serve as target material when obtaining the 117th element. The creation of this scarce target from material provided by overseas colleagues was carried out at RIAR . In Dubna, the missing link was already directly obtained from accelerators.
As the director of Flerov’s laboratory, Sergei Dmitriev, told Vremya Novostey, the merging of the elements with which the work was carried out was very unlikely. “From June 27, 2009 to February 28, 2010, there was irradiation,” he clarified. During this period, he said, it was possible to record six events of the birth of a new element - “one nucleus per month.”
It is noteworthy that the discovery of scientists from Dubna, which once again demonstrated the scientific potential of the research center located in this town, became known shortly after the government initiative to build a new innovative science city in Skolkovo was announced. The director of the Flerov Laboratory of JINR, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, emphasizing that he certainly supports the very idea of developing new technologies, noted: “In my opinion, it would be possible to invest money more purposefully, in already existing good centers, such as the Joint Institute nuclear research, a world-famous center with its own culture and developed technological base.”