Scientists discover superheavy element 116, named livermorium

Scientists at the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found a new way to create element 116, called livermorium.

The results obtained from the process of creating this superheavy element will lay an important foundation for creating heavier nuclear elements in the future, and create the premise for researchers to create the heaviest element number 120, considered the Holy Grail in chemistry.

These elements may occur elsewhere in the universe but not on Earth due to the conditions for their occurrence such as temperature, pressure and other factors.

But in labs like the one at Berkeley, using advanced technology, scientists have created more protons inside the nucleus of atoms to create these new elements. The heaviest element found so far is element 118 oganesson, using a beam of calcium 48 isotope particles.

A common and very effective primer for physical chemistry is Calcium 48, with 20 protons plus 28 neutrons.

To create element 119 or 120, scientists need einsteinium (99) or fermium (100), but neither of these elements can be produced in sufficient quantities to make a suitable target. The next choice is titanium 50, which has 22 protons plus 28 neutrons and is very stable. Its long-term potential is even better than calcium 48.

Scientists want to understand the properties and uses of these heavy elements. But right now we can only create a few atoms at a time, and they exist for just a few millionths of a second before the protons fly out of the nucleus.