According to Academician Oganessian, a new element of the Periodic Table will be synthesized not earlier than 2021.

Moscow. 14 November. Interfax. According to RAS Academician Yuri Oganessian, the experiment on the synthesis of element 119 of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements will start not earlier than the end of 2020 and will last for about 150 days.

“The experiment will last not less than 150 days. We hope that berkelium (used for the target in the synthesis, IF) will be made not earlier and not later than the end of 2020. Moreover, there is so much to do until this time that even if it is delayed, there is nothing to worry about,” Oganessian said to the agency on Thursday.

Photo by Elena Puzynina

He explained that physicists would carry out two demonstrative experiments. Elements 114 (flerovium, Fl) and 115 (moscovium, Mc) will be synthesized in them in a larger amount than it has been done previously. Thus, scientists expect to study the properties of these elements that they have not managed to analyze earlier. It will be the first step towards the synthesis of element 119.

Once this research is carried out, specialists will start to prepare a target made of another element, namely berkelium (Bk, element 97) that will be stable for about 300 days. This target, according to Oganessian, will ten times bigger than before to “jump” from element 115 to element 119.

Academician notes that the target will be completed until the end of 2020, and another 150 days will be spent on experiments with the target for the synthesis of element 119. Thus, results should be awaited not earlier than the middle of 2021.

The previous element 118 is called oganesson (Og). It was inaugurated in 2016 and named after Academician Oganessian, the author of the key scientific works on the synthesis of new elements. Some new elements were synthesized under his supervision at the beginning of the 2000s. Furthermore, Academician Oganessian jointly with colleagues from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research took an active part in the synthesis of element 118 in Dubna and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA).

Source: Interfax