4 NEW ELEMENTS GET NAMES

The proposed names for elements 113,115,117 and 118 are Nihonium,
Moscovium, Tennesine and Oganesson respectively, the International Union of
Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has announced.

The groups responsible for the discovery of these new elements each put
forward their proposed name and symbol after IUPAC confirmed their
existence in January 2016. The criteria states an element may be named after a
mythological figure or concept, geological place, scientist, elemental property,
or mineral.

Nihonium (elemental symbol Nh) is the proposed name for element-113.

The element was synthesized by Kosuke Morita’s group at RIKEN in Japan after
they bombarded a bismuth target with zinc-70 nuclei in 2004 and 2012. Named
after Japan, the element will be the first East Asian name to appear on the
periodic table if ratified.

Scientists based in Russia and the US who discovered elements 115 and
117 have put forward the names moscovium(Mc) and tennessine(Ts),
respectively. A collaboration between the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in
Russia and the Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, US,
elements 115 and 117 were both created in 2010. Both element names take their
cues from geographical regions. Moscovium is named after Moscow, where the Joint
Institute of Nuclear Research is based. Named after Tennesse, tennessine is a tribute
to the region where a large amount of superheavy element research is conducted in
the US.

The same group has also names element-118 oganesson (Og), in

honor of the Russian nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian who led the team that
synthesized element-117.
Sourav Sutradhar
th
5 semester chemistry honours