Mendeleev periodic table adds new element -117

According to Radio " Russian Voice ", Russian scientists said that in the future, they will synthesize the 117 element in the Periodic Table of Mendeleev chemical elements.

This will be the " super-heavy " artificial element, standing between the super-heavy elements 116 and 118 that were previously synthesized.

The synthesis of new elements is a long, meticulous and costly process. The heaviest natural element is uranium, the 92nd element. The next heavy elements have been synthesized in nuclear reactors. Super heavy elements are synthesized in heavy ion accelerators.

The experimental element 117 began more than a year ago at the Flerov Laboratory under the Nuclear Research Institute in Dubna, Russia.

Mr. Sergei Dmitriev, head of the laboratory said that American scientists at the Oakland National Laboratory, helped synthesize a necessary amount of Berkelium element. Later, this amount of Berkelium was transferred to Russia to create the necessary " steles " for the experiment.

Next, the " steles " will be arranged in the powerful accelerator of the Nuclear Research Institute in Dubna and the process of synthesizing new elements can be simply visualized as follows: Calcium ions are fired at the steles. Quick dial made of thin Titanium foil plated with Berkelium. Element 117 will be synthesized when Calcium nucleus hits the center of Berkelium and will pierce Berkelium leaves to fly out from the other side.

Berkelium is an extremely expensive material, only 30 grams of Berkelium costing millions of dollars. Meanwhile, its decay duration does not exceed 320 days and it is about time scientists have to complete the experiments.

Dmitriev said the synthesis of super-heavy elements helped clarify the problem of where the elements came from and why the element was abundant and other elements were less. Artificial heavy elements are only used to study their properties, because the half-life is very short and cannot be synthesized in large quantities.