Ununoctium

{ syn. }

Ununoctium (Latin unus ' one ', and the Latin octo, eight ', according to the atomic number 118 ) is the heaviest known and proven chemical element. The name is a systematic element name. It is also known as eka- radon (Sanskrit eka 'one', and radon, ie " one among radon " ) designated by the symbol Eka -Rn. The symbol of Ununoctium is UUO.

Generation

Alleged production in Berkeley

A report on the generation of the elements Ununhexium and Ununoctium at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was published in the journal Physical Review Letters in 1999. The following year the report was withdrawn because the results described by other researchers were unable to reproduce. In June 2002, the Director of the Berkeley Labs announced that the original publication was based on most likely fake data. The employee Victor Ninov was suspected to have manipulated decay series. Contrast Ninov told the measuring apparatus for error and insisted on his innocence.

Production in Dubna

In 2006, the production of element 118 was announced again. The three atoms were detected in 2002 and 2005 produced artificially in a joint venture establishment of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Dubna.

The scientists produced this by bombarding californium with calcium ions, two different superheavy nuclei. After bombardment few atoms merged for a small time and were recognized as an element with the atomic number 118.

Properties

294Uuo is radioactive with a half-life of 0.89 ms very short-lived. By alpha decay Ununoctium decays into the element Livermorium, but which decays further in milliseconds. It is one of the Transactinoiden and chemically belongs to the group of noble gases. Whether it actually is gaseous at room temperature, is still unknown. Since Ununoctium located on the diagonal border with the semi- metal, it is possible that this is not the case. The halogen astatine, which is also located on this diagonal is, in appearance, for example, rather metallic.

Due to relativistic effects, not Ununoctium may behave as a noble gas; this property is, however, expected more from Copernicium ( element 112). On the other hand, Copernicium behaves according to a press release from the Paul Scherrer Institute in May 2006, chemically similar to mercury ( Hg).

Currently, this is the subject of current theoretical discussions, because of the chemical properties of Ununoctium far no experimental results exist, since the element was detected only indirectly by its typical decay products.

Because the chemical properties of Ununoctium may differ from those of the noble gases, it could in aqueous solution in the form of oxides and non-atomic occur.

Name

After messages are planning the discoverers to propose the name Moskowium for the new item, which must then be confirmed by the IUPAC. In the media, this term is already partially used. The American group to Ninov initially had to honor their colleague Albert Ghiorso, who was instrumental in the discovery of elements 95-106, provided the name Ghiorsium. The proposal, however, was obsolete by the discovery of the forgeries.