LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

SYNTHESIS OF NEW ELEMENTS IN THE LABORATORY

Background Information for the Learners (BIL)

Chemists within the 19th century generally approves about what particles
consisted matter and agreed that matter is made of atoms. However, they are not
familiar about the structure of the atoms.
The information about the known elements gave them encouragement to
arrange the elements in a table.
An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into simpler one. Most
known chemical elements are found to occur on Earth naturally. All elements are all
represented by their atomic number, the number of protons in their nucleus. The
natural elements start with hydrogen (1) and end with californium (98).
But it doesn't stop there. Scientists have created 20 other synthetic elements.
Those start with einsteinium —99. You could also consider atomic numbers 95–98
synthetic elements because they’re almost exclusively man-made that results to a total
of 24 synthetic elements discovered. These elements are generally used to fuel
chemical reactors, and these could also be used for detectors and
spectrophotometers. Some are applicable in pharmaceutical industries.

Naturally - Occurring
and Synthetic Elements

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_element

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 The table shows the naturally-occurring and synthetic elements. A synthetic
element is one of 24 chemical elements that do not occur naturally on Earth: they have
been created by human manipulation of fundamental particles in a nuclear reactor,
a particle accelerator, or the explosion of an atomic bomb; thus, they are called
"synthetic", "artificial", or "man-made". The synthetic elements are those with atomic
numbers 95–118, as shown in purple on the accompanying periodic table and the rest
are the naturally-occurring elements.
Different elements have different number of protons. Atomic number is equal to
number of protons. All atoms of a given element have the same number of protons but
may have different number of neutrons and atoms of the same element with different
number of neutrons are called isotopes.

Source: http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~wbreslyn/chemistry/isotopes/isotopes-of-hydrogen.html

Discoveries through Nuclear Reactions

Radioactivity is a spontaneous process wherein the nucleus of an unstable

atom disintegrates while releasing radiation and losing energy. It is also called
radioactive decay or nuclear decay. Antoine-Henri Becquerel discovered
radioactivity in 1896. Using the concept of radioactivity, Ernest Rutherford and
Frederick Soddy discovered isotopes in 1914.
In 1919, Rutherford discovered that when a nitrogen nucleus was bombarded
with alpha particles from radium, an oxygen nucleus and a proton were produced.
In 1934, Irene Joliot-Curie and her husband Frederic Joliot discovered that
when an aluminum nucleus was bombarded with alpha particles, a phosphorous
nucleus and a neutron can be produced.

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 Glenn Theodore Seaborg was an American chemist whose contribution in the
synthesis, discovery and study of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of
the 1951 Nobel Prize/honor in Chemistry.
Seaborg was the head or co-discoverer of ten
elements: plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermiu
m, mendelevium, nobelium and seaborgium. According to him, Uranium or plutonium
are being bombarded with neutrons in nuclear reactors. The first production is in 1944.

NUCLEAR REACTION
Nuclear Reaction a term implied that causes a nuclide to change by
bombarding it with energetic particle. It involves a heavy target nucleus and a light
bombarding particle. It can produce a heavier product nucleus and emits a very high
electromagnetic energy. Nuclear reactions may increase or decrease the number of
protons of an atom, thus, producing new elements or isotopes.

SYNTHETIC ELEMENTS
A term for chemical element that does not occur naturally on Earth. It can only
be created artificially, and it is radioactive and decay rapidly into lighter elements. It
only occurs on Earth as the product of atomic bombs or experiments. Scientist
discovered that a nucleus with too many or too few neutrons compared to its protons
is radioactive. Radioactive materials are very unstable. Technetium with an atomic
number of 43 is the first synthetic element that is artificially produced. It was produced
by E. Segre and C. Perrier in 1937 by bombarding molybdenum nuclei with deuterium.
In 1940, neptunium is produced by bombarding uranium atoms with neutrons. Since
then, elements with atomic numbers 95 to 118 have been synthesized.

Learning Competency:
Explain how the concept of atomic number led to the synthesis of new elements in the
laboratory (S11/12PS-IIIb-11)

Activity 1: Natural or Synthetic?

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