Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a novel method to create superheavy elements, those with atomic numbers higher than uranium, which has sparked new hope for exploring these elusive elements. The team’s breakthrough was published in Physical Review Letters and marks a significant advance in understanding the properties of these heavy elements.
Superheavy elements typically have atomic numbers above 100 but do not naturally occur on Earth due to their short half-lives. To create them, researchers need high-energy environments and powerful particle accelerators. The study of superheavy elements has expanded our knowledge of the periodic table and brought scientists closer to finding a region known as the “island of stability.”
The island of stability is a hypothesized area on the Segré chart where superheavy elements with particular proton and neutron configurations might exhibit longer half-lives than nearby elements. This idea has driven researchers to devise novel methods to approach and explore this area.
Traditionally, scientists have created superheavy elements by bombarding actinide targets with calcium-48, an isotope notable for its “magic number” of both protons and neutrons. However, as element numbers increase, the likelihood of successful reactions decreases dramatically. The team at LBNL developed a new approach using titanium-50 beams instead.
For the first time, they successfully synthesized livermorium, a superheavy element near the predicted island of stability, using this new method. This achievement marks a significant advance in understanding the synthesis of superheavy elements.
However, many questions remain unanswered, and further research is needed to refine the techniques. The availability of suitable actinide targets also limits current efforts. To overcome these challenges, the team aims to expand their techniques further to create more isotopes available for future study.
Source: https://thedebrief.org/scientists-have-discovered-a-new-way-to-create-superheavy-elements/