The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially recognized elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 on Dec. 30, after a lengthy process for approval.  

All four elements cannot be found in nature, due to the fact that they decay rapidly. Scientists worked to synthetically create the elements in laboratories.

Japan’s largest research center RIKEN, led by Kosuke Morita, received credit for the discovery of element 113. A Russian-American team from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; discovered elements 115, 117 and 118.

It is likely that the recognition of the elements discovered by the Japanese and Russian-American teams will affect the overall interest in chemistry in a positive way.

“Chemistry’s a hot thing now, it’s the sexy science,” upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine said. “Shows like Breaking Bad made it really exciting and new, so it’s a part of popular culture. I think it’s important to get kids and people excited about chemistry and I think it’ll be cool to see what names come up [for the elements].”

According to IUPAC, the studies produced by the Japanese scientists between 2004 and 2012 have given the team the strongest claim to discovering element 113.

The RIKEN team fired beams of zinc at a thin film of bismuth in order to synthesize the element. In 2003, they began bombarding bismuth atoms in a particle accelerator at 10 percent of the speed of light. The team succeeded in fusing two nuclei from these elements in 2004, creating the first nucleus of element 113; however, it decayed in less than a thousandth of a second. A year later, the team once again produced element 113, but IUPAC did not consider the demonstration a discovery.

The team went seven years without finding conclusive evidence. It must be noted that the fusion in order to produce an atom with 113 protons and 165 neutrons is extremely unlikely.

After leaving the beam active for 533 days with more than 130 quintillion zinc atoms fired, according to Nature, the team produced compelling evidence that they had finally synthesized the elusive element, making element 113 the first to be discovered in east Asia.

Although the newly recognized elements have no practical use in daily life, these elusive particles could be a key step towards finding the fabled “island of stability,” a term in nuclear physics that refers to a region beyond the periodic table where new elements with special numbers of neutrons and protons show increased stability.

“The better we get at finding [elements], the more we’ll be able to discover,” upper school physics teacher Lisa Radice said. “I think it’ll be more interesting when we find things that are actually stable and potentially useful. It still furthers our knowledge of elements and what matter is made of, so there’s no downside of finding them, but at this point, I think it’s hard to see the practical benefit.”

Alexander Young (9) expressed his conviction in the significance of the recognized elements.

“I think it’s a really important new advancement, because it goes to further expand the periodic table of elements and our basic understanding of physics, chemistry – in fact, all fields of science,” Alexander said. “And basically, it’s another milestone in understanding our universe and the basic elements that make it up.”   

Although the official recognition of elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 is a major milestone in the history of chemistry, scientists hope to continue their research, and to discover other elements beyond element 118.