These elements will complete the seventh row of the periodic table of elements
The fourth International Joint Working Party (JWP) of Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has approved the discovery of four new elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118 and will now invite their discoverers from Japan, Russia and the US to suggest permanent names and symbols.
The new elements have been assigned temporary names. For example, element with atomic number 113 has been given the temporary working name ununtrium and symbol Uut. Similarly, elements 115, 117, and 118 are called ununpentium (Uup), ununseptium (Uus) and ununoctium (Uuo) respectively.
The RIKEN collaboration team from Japan has fulfilled the criteria required for recognition of ununtrium while the collaboration between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA have fulfilled the criteria for elements ununpentium and ununseptium. The collaboration between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA fulfilled the criteria for ununoctium.
"The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row. IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalising names and symbols for these elements…," said Jan Reedijk, president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC.
The decision to approve the discovery of these elements has been detailed in two reports by the JWP, which includes experts drawn from IUPAC and IUPAP (the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics). These reports will be published in an early 2016 issue of the IUPAC journal Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC).
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