Image credit: A Zschau, GSI.
Element 112, discovered at GSI Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed this recognition in an official letter to the head of the discovery team, Sigurd Hofmann. The letter also asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element, which is the heaviest so far in the periodic table. Once the proposed name has been thoroughly assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name.
A team of 21 scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia was involved in the experiments that discovered the new element. They created the first atom of 112 in 1996 when they directed a beam of zinc ions onto a target of lead at the accelerator at GSI; a second example followed in 2002. Subsequent accelerator experiments at the Japanese RIKEN accelerator facility produced more atoms of element 112, unequivocally confirming GSI’s discovery.
Since 1981, accelerator experiments at GSI have yielded six new chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. GSI has already named the officially recognized elements 107 to 111: element 107 is called bohrium, element 108 hassium, element 109 meitnerium, element 110 darmstadtium and element 111 is named roentgenium.
