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A news reports from IUPAC indicates the confirmation of the discoveries of elements 114 and 116. Proposals for the names of the two elements will follow in due course:
News: Discovery of the Elements with Atomic Number 114 and 116
Priority for the discovery of the elements with atomic number 114 and 116 has been assigned, in accordance with the agreed criteria, to collaborative work between scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and from Lawrence Livermore, California, USA (the Dubna-Livermore collaborations). The discovery evidences were recently reviewed and recognized by a IUPAC/IUPAP joint working party. IUPAC confirmed the recognition of the elements in a letter to the leaders of the collaboration.
The IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party (JWP) on the priority of claims to the discovery of new elements has reviewed the relevant literature pertaining to several claims. In accordance with the criteria for the discovery of elements previously established by the 1992 IUPAC/IUPAP Transfermium Working Group, and reiterated by the 1999 and 2003 IUPAC/IUPAP JWPs, it was concluded that “the establishment of the identity of the isotope 283Cn by a large number of decaying chains, originating from a variety of production pathways essentially triangulating its A,Z character enables that nuclide’s use in unequivocally recognizing higher-Z isotopes that are observed to decay through it.” From 2004 Dubna-Livermore collaborations the JWP notes: (i) the internal redundancy and extended decay chain sequence for identification of Z = 287114 from 48Ca + 242Pu fusion (Oganessian et al. Eur. Phys. J. A 19, 3 (2004) and Phys. Rev. C 70, 064609 (2004)); and (ii) that the report of the production of 291116 from the fusion of 48Ca with 245Cm is supported by extended decay chains that include, again, 283Cn and descendants (Oganessian et al. Phys. Rev. C 69, 054607 (2004)). It recommends that the Dubna-Livermore collaborations be credited with discovery of these two new elements.
A full synopsis of the relevant experiments and related efforts is presented in a technical report published online in Pure and Applied Chemistry on 1 June 2011. With the priority for the discovery established, the scientists from the Dubna-Livermore collaborations are invited to propose a name for the two super-heavy elements, elements 114 and 116. The suggested names will then go through a review process before adoption by the IUPAC Council.
Review of the claims associated with elements 113, 115, and 118 are at this time not conclusive and evidences have not met the criteria for discovery.
Workers in the USA verify the production of element 114 in the reaction of 244-MeV 48Ca with 242Pu. Two chains of time- and position-correlated decays were assigned to 286114 and 287114. The observed decay modes, half-lives, and decay energies agree with the original claims of researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna in Russia. The Russian results were first reported in 1999. Such independent verification is vital for verification purposes. The measured cross sections at a center-of-target energy of 244 MeV for the 242Pu(48Ca,3–4n)287,286114 reactions were 1.4(+3.2, -1.2) pb each, which are lower than the reported values.1
- 1. Independent Verification of Element 114 Production in the Ca-48 + Pu-242 Reaction,
, Physical Review Letters, Volume 103, Number 13, p.132502, (2009)
Independent verification of the production of element 114 in the reaction of 244-MeV 48Ca with 242Pu is presented. Two chains of time- and position-correlated decays have been assigned to 286114 and 287114. The observed decay modes, half-lives, and decay energies agree with published results. The measured cross sections at a center-of-target energy of 244 MeV for the 242Pu(48Ca,3–4n)287,286114 reactions were 1.4(+3.2, -1.2) pb each, which are lower than the reported values.Independent Verification of Element 114 Production in the Ca-48 + Pu-242 Reaction, , Physical Review Letters, Volume 103, Number 13, p.132502, (2009)