New elements aren’t exactly discovered anymore,

However, they can be made using:

Elements can produced by:

1. Neutron bombardment
2. Fusion
3. Particle accelerator
4. Nuclear reactor
Nuclear reaction is the
process where two nuclei
collide to produce new
nuclei. There are two types of
nuclear reaction:nuclear
transmutation and nuclear
decay reaction
1. A nuclear transmutation is a
reaction involving the transformation of
one element into another element. It
happens when a nucleus reacts with a
subatomic particle to produce a more
massive nucleus. It occurs only on
special conditions such as the collision
of the target nuclei with a beam of
particles with high energies
2. Nuclear decay reaction, also known as
radioactive decay, is a reaction in which
the nucleus emits radiation and transforms
into a new nucleus. The parent nuclei are
unstable, and the resulting daughter nuclei are
more stable, having lower mass and energy.
Transuranium elements are unstable that they
undergo radioactive decay resulting in more
stable elements.
The nuclear decay reactions
involved in the synthesis of
transuranium elements are
alpha decay, beta decay,
and spontaneous fission.
a. The alpha decay is a reaction that emits
helium-4 nucleus or alpha particle, 42α. This
decay produces a daughter nucleus with an
atomic number reduced by two, and a mass
number reduced by four compared with the
parent nucleus. Most nuclei with mass numbers
greater than 200 undergo this type of decay.
The general reaction can be represented as
Np Pa
Try to complete the given nuclear reaction:
B. In beta decay, a neutron is
converted into a proton and emits
an electron in the form of a beta
particle. The atomic number goes up
by one while its mass number
remains the same. The general
reaction can be represented as
C. In spontaneous fission, the nucleus breaks into
pieces into different atomic numbers and mass
numbers. This occurs in very massive nuclei. For
instance, californium-254 undergoes spontaneous
fission, making various sets of fission products. One
possible set can be represented as
ACTIVITY:

Write the alpha decay equations for the following nuclides.

1. 2.
Write the beta decay equation of the following
nuclide:

3. 4.
In each equation, there is one missing species.
Identify the missing species represented by X

5.

6.
Write the spontaneous fission equation of the given
statement below:

7. An example of spontaneous fission

reaction is the splitting of californium-252
into xenon-140 and ruthenium-108, which
also releases 4 neutrons:
 NUCLEAR REACTIONS INVOLVED IN THE
SYNTHESIS OF NEW ELEMENTS
• In the synthesis of new elements, nuclear
reactions are involved. Let us consider an
artificial nuclear transformation conducted
by Ernest Rutherford in 1919. He fired a
N2 gas with a stream of alpha particles. In
the process, he detected oxygen and
hydrogen as products.
The reaction is shown below:

Their nuclear masses in a.m.u are the following:

14.00307 + 4.00260 ------> 16.999130 + 1.007825

 Nitrogen 14 is an isotope with 7 protons and 7
neutrons. Oxygen 17 has a nuclei containing 8
protons and 9 neutrons. 1H has a nucleus of
ordinary hydrogen with 1 proton and no neutron

This reaction took place because it was

bombarded with alpha particles with some extra
energy (kinetic energy) provided.
Let us now consider a naturally occuring nuclear
reaction, the alpha decay of uranium 238

In this reaction , gives off an alpha

particle and changes into thorium and then
release energy. The reaction is as follows: