Unbibium
Unbibium, also known as element 122 or eka-thorium, is the hypothetical chemical element in the periodic table with the placeholder symbol of Ubb and atomic number 122. Unbibium and Ubb are the temporary systematic IUPAC name and symbol respectively, which are used until the element is discovered, confirmed, and a permanent name is decided upon. In the periodic table of the elements, it is expected to follow unbiunium as the second element of the superactinides and the fourth element of the 8th period. Similarly to unbiunium, it is expected to fall within the range of the island of stability, potentially conferring additional stability on some isotopes, especially 306Ubb which is expected to have a magic number of neutrons (184).
Unbibium | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pronunciation | /ˌuːnbaɪˈbaɪəm/ | |||||
Alternative names | element 122, eka-thorium | |||||
Unbibium in the periodic table | ||||||
| ||||||
Atomic number (Z) | 122 | |||||
Group | n/a | |||||
Period | period 8 | |||||
Block | g-block | |||||
Electron configuration | [Og] 7d1 8s2 8p1 (predicted)[1] | |||||
Electrons per shell | 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 18, 9, 3 (predicted) | |||||
Physical properties | ||||||
unknown | ||||||
Atomic properties | ||||||
Oxidation states | (+4) (predicted)[2] | |||||
Ionization energies | ||||||
Other properties | ||||||
CAS Number | 54576-73-7 | |||||
History | ||||||
Naming | IUPAC systematic element name | |||||
Despite several attempts, unbibium has not yet been synthesized, nor have any naturally occurring isotopes been found to exist. There are currently no plans to attempt to synthesize unbibium. In 2008, it was claimed to have been discovered in natural thorium samples,[4] but that claim has now been dismissed by recent repetitions of the experiment using more accurate techniques.
Chemically, unbibium is expected to show some resemblance to its cerium and thorium. However, relativistic effects may cause some of its properties to differ; for example, it is expected to have a ground state electron configuration of [Og] 7d1 8s2 8p1,[2] despite its predicted position in the g-block superactinide series.
Introduction
External video | |
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Visualization of unsuccessful nuclear fusion, based on calculations by the Australian National University[5] |
The heaviest[lower-alpha 1] atomic nuclei are created in nuclear reactions that combine two other nuclei of unequal size[lower-alpha 2] into one; roughly, the more unequal the two nuclei in terms of mass, the greater the possibility that the two react.[11] The material made of the heavier nuclei is made into a target, which is then bombarded by the beam of lighter nuclei. Two nuclei can only fuse into one if they approach each other closely enough; normally, nuclei (all positively charged) repel each other due to electrostatic repulsion. The strong interaction can overcome this repulsion but only within a very short distance from a nucleus; beam nuclei are thus greatly accelerated in order to make such repulsion insignificant compared to the velocity of the beam nucleus.[12] Coming close alone is not enough for two nuclei to fuse: when two nuclei approach each other, they usually remain together for approximately 10−20 seconds and then part ways (not necessarily in the same composition as before the reaction) rather than form a single nucleus.[12][13] If fusion does occur, the temporary merger—termed a compound nucleus—is an excited state. To lose its excitation energy and reach a more stable state, a compound nucleus either fissions or ejects one or several neutrons,[lower-alpha 3] which carry away the energy. This occurs in approximately 10−16 seconds after the initial collision.[14][lower-alpha 4]
The beam passes through the target and reaches the next chamber, the separator; if a new nucleus is produced, it is carried with this beam.[17] In the separator, the newly produced nucleus is separated from other nuclides (that of the original beam and any other reaction products)[lower-alpha 5] and transferred to a surface-barrier detector, which stops the nucleus. The exact location of the upcoming impact on the detector is marked; also marked are its energy and the time of the arrival.[17] The transfer takes about 10−6 seconds; in order to be detected, the nucleus must survive this long.[20] The nucleus is recorded again once its decay is registered, and the location, the energy, and the time of the decay are measured.[17]
Stability of a nucleus is provided by the strong interaction. However, its range is very short; as nuclei become larger, its influence on the outermost nucleons (protons and neutrons) weakens. At the same time, the nucleus is torn apart by electrostatic repulsion between protons, as it has unlimited range.[21] Nuclei of the heaviest elements are thus theoretically predicted[22] and have so far been observed[23] to primarily decay via decay modes that are caused by such repulsion: alpha decay and spontaneous fission;[lower-alpha 6] these modes are predominant for nuclei of superheavy elements. Alpha decays are registered by the emitted alpha particles, and the decay products are easy to determine before the actual decay; if such a decay or a series of consecutive decays produces a known nucleus, the original product of a reaction can be determined arithmetically.[lower-alpha 7] Spontaneous fission, however, produces various nuclei as products, so the original nuclide cannot be determined from its daughters.[lower-alpha 8]
The information available to physicists aiming to synthesize one of the heaviest elements is thus the information collected at the detectors: location, energy, and time of arrival of a particle to the detector, and those of its decay. The physicists analyze this data and seek to conclude that it was indeed caused by a new element and could not have been caused by a different nuclide than the one claimed. Often, provided data is insufficient for a conclusion that a new element was definitely created and there is no other explanation for the observed effects; errors in interpreting data have been made.[lower-alpha 9]
History
Fusion-evaporation
The first attempts to synthesize unbibium were performed in 1972 by Flerov et al. at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), using the heavy-ion induced hot fusion reactions:[35]
- 238
92U
+ 66,68
30Zn
→ 304,306
122Ubb
* → no atoms
These experiments were motivated by early predictions on the existence of an island of stability at N = 184 and Z > 120. No atoms were detected and a yield limit of 5 nb (5,000 pb) was measured. Current results (see flerovium) have shown that the sensitivity of these experiments were too low by at least 3 orders of magnitude.[36]
In 2000, the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research performed a very similar experiment with much higher sensitivity:[35]
- 238
92U
+ 70
30Zn
→ 308
122Ubb
* → no atoms
These results indicate that the synthesis of such heavier elements remains a significant challenge and further improvements of beam intensity and experimental efficiency is required. The sensitivity should be increased to 1 fb in the future for more quality results.
Another unsuccessful attempt to synthesize unbibium was carried out in 1978 at the GSI Helmholtz Center, where a natural erbium target was bombarded with xenon-136 ions:[35]
- nat
68Er
+ 136
54Xe
→ 298,300,302,303,304,306
Ubb
* → no atoms
In particular, the reaction between 170Er and 136Xe was expected to yield alpha emitters with half-lives of microseconds that would decay down to isotopes of flerovium with half-lives perhaps increasing up to several hours, as flerovium is predicted to lie near the center of the island of stability. After twelve hours of irradiation, nothing was found in this reaction. Following a similar unsuccessful attempt to synthesize unbiunium from 238U and 65Cu, it was concluded that half-lives of superheavy nuclei must be less than one microsecond or the cross sections are very small.[37] More recent research into synthesis of superheavy elements suggests that both conclusions are true.[38][39] The two attempts in the 1970s to synthesize unbibium were both propelled by the research investigating whether superheavy elements could potentially be naturally occurring.[35]
Compound nucleus fission
Several experiments studying the fission characteristics of various superheavy compound nuclei such as 306Ubb were performed between 2000 and 2004 at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. Two nuclear reactions were used, namely 248Cm + 58Fe and 242Pu + 64Ni.[35] The results reveal how superheavy nuclei fission predominantly by expelling closed shell nuclei such as 132Sn (Z = 50, N = 82). It was also found that the yield for the fusion-fission pathway was similar between 48Ca and 58Fe projectiles, suggesting a possible future use of 58Fe projectiles in superheavy element formation.[40]
Future
Every element from mendelevium onward was produced in fusion-evaporation reactions, culminating in the discovery of the heaviest known element oganesson in 2002[42][43] and most recently tennessine in 2010.[44] These reactions approached the limit of current technology; for example, the synthesis of tennessine required 22 milligrams of 249Bk and an intense 48Ca beam for six months. The intensity of beams in superheavy element research cannot exceed 1012 projectiles per second without damaging the target and detector, and producing larger quantities of increasingly rare and unstable actinide targets is impractical.[45] Consequently, future experiments must be done at facilities such as the under-construction superheavy element factory (SHE-factory) at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) or RIKEN, which will allow experiments to run for longer stretches of time with increased detection capabilities and enable otherwise inaccessible reactions.[46]
It is possible that fusion-evaporation reactions will not be suitable for the discovery of unbibium or heavier elements. Various models predict increasingly short alpha and spontaneous fission half-lives for isotopes with Z = 122 and N ~ 180 on the order of microseconds or less,[47] rendering detection nearly impossible with current equipment.[38] The increasing dominance of spontaneous fission also may sever possible ties to known nuclei of livermorium or oganesson and make identification and confirmation more difficult; a similar problem occurred in the road to confirmation of the decay chain of 294Og which has no anchor to known nuclei.[48] For these reasons, other methods of production may need to be researched such as multi-nucleon transfer reactions capable of populating longer-lived nuclei. A similar switch in experimental technique occurred when hot fusion using 48Ca projectiles was used instead of cold fusion (in which cross sections decrease rapidly with increasing atomic number) to populate elements with Z > 113.[39]
Nevertheless, several fusion-evaporation reactions leading to unbibium have been proposed in addition to those already tried unsuccessfully, though no institution has immediate plans to make synthesis attempts, instead focusing first on elements 119, 120, and possibly 121. Because cross sections increase with asymmetry of the reaction,[39] a chromium beam would be most favorable in combination with a californium target,[38] especially if the predicted closed neutron shell at N = 184 could be reached in more neutron-rich products and confer additional stability. In particular, the reaction between 54Cr and 252Cf would generate the compound nucleus 306Ubb* and reach the shell at N = 184, though the analogous reaction with a 249Cf target is believed to be more feasible because of the presence of unwanted fission products from 252Cf and difficulty in accumulating the required amount of target material.[49] One possible synthesis of unbibium could occur as follows:[38]
- 249
98Cf
+ 54
24Cr
→ 300
122Ubb
+ 3 1
0
n
Should this reaction be successful and alpha decay remain dominant over spontaneous fission, the resultant 300Ubb would decay through 296Ubn which may be populated in cross-bombardment between 249Cf and 50Ti. Although this reaction is one of the most promising options for the synthesis of unbibium in the near future, the maximum cross section is predicted to be 3 fb,[49] one order of magnitude lower than the lowest measured cross section in a successful reaction. The more symmetrical reactions 244Pu + 64Ni and 248Cm + 58Fe[38] have also been proposed and may produce more neutron-rich isotopes. With increasing atomic number, one must also be aware of decreasing fission barrier heights, resulting in lower survival probability of compound nuclei, especially above the predicted magic numbers at Z = 126 and N = 184.[49]
Claimed discovery as a naturally occurring element
In 2008, a group led by Israeli physicist Amnon Marinov at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem claimed to have found single atoms of unbibium-292 in naturally occurring thorium deposits at an abundance of between 10−11 and 10−12 relative to thorium.[4] This was the first time in 69 years that a new element had been claimed to be discovered in nature, after Marguerite Perey's 1939 discovery of francium.[lower-alpha 10] The claim of Marinov et al. was criticized by a part of the scientific community, and Marinov says he has submitted the article to the journals Nature and Nature Physics but both turned it down without sending it for peer review.[50] The unbibium-292 atoms were claimed to be superdeformed or hyperdeformed isomers, with a half-life of at least 100 million years.[35]
A criticism of the technique, previously used in purportedly identifying lighter thorium isotopes by mass spectrometry,[51] was published in Physical Review C in 2008.[52] A rebuttal by the Marinov group was published in Physical Review C after the published comment.[53]
A repeat of the thorium experiment using the superior method of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) failed to confirm the results, despite a 100-fold better sensitivity.[54] This result throws considerable doubt on the results of the Marinov collaboration with regards to their claims of long-lived isotopes of thorium,[51] roentgenium,[55] and unbibium.[4] It is still possible that traces of unbibium might exist in some thorium samples, though given current understanding of superheavy elements, this is very unlikely.[35]
Naming
Using Mendeleev's nomenclature for unnamed and undiscovered elements, unbibium should instead be known as eka-thorium.[56] After the recommendations of the IUPAC in 1979, the element has since been largely referred to as unbibium with the atomic symbol of (Ubb),[57] as its temporary name until the element is officially discovered and synthesized, and a permanent name is decided on. Scientists largely ignore this naming convention, and instead simply refer to unbibium as "element 122" with the symbol of (122), or sometimes even E122 or 122.[58]
Predicted properties
Nuclear stability and isotopes
The stability of nuclei decreases greatly with the increase in atomic number after plutonium, the heaviest primordial element, so that all isotopes with an atomic number above 101 decay radioactively with a half-life under a day, with an exception of dubnium-268. No elements with atomic numbers above 82 (after lead) have stable isotopes.[59] Nevertheless, because of reasons not very well understood yet, there is a slight increased nuclear stability around atomic numbers 110–114, which leads to the appearance of what is known in nuclear physics as the "island of stability". This concept, proposed by University of California professor Glenn Seaborg, explains why superheavy elements last longer than predicted.[60]
In this region of the periodic table, N = 184 has been suggested as a closed neutron shell, and various atomic numbers have been proposed as closed proton shells, such as Z = 114, 120, 122, 124, and 126. The island of stability would be characterized by longer half-lives of nuclei located near these magic numbers, though the extent of stabilizing effects is uncertain due to predictions of weakening of the proton shell closures and possible loss of double magicity.[61] More recent research predicts the island of stability to instead be centered at beta-stable copernicium isotopes 291Cn and 293Cn,[39][62] which would place unbibium well above the island and result in short half-lives regardless of shell effects. The increased stability of elements 112–118 has also been attributed to the oblate shape of such nuclei and resistance to spontaneous fission. The same model also proposes 306Ubb as the next spherical doubly magic nucleus, thus defining the true island of stability for spherical nuclei.[63]
A quantum tunneling model predicts the alpha-decay half-lives of unbibium isotopes 284–322Ubb to be on the order of microseconds or less for all isotopes lighter than 315Ubb,[64] highlighting a significant challenge in experimental observation of this element. This is consistent with many predictions, though the exact location of the 1 microsecond border varies by model. Additionally, spontaneous fission is expected to become a major decay mode in this region, with half-lives on the order of femtoseconds predicted for some even–even isotopes[47] due to minimal hindrance resulting from nucleon pairing and loss of stabilizing effects farther away from magic numbers.[49] A 2016 calculation on the half-lives and probable decay chains of isotopes 280–339Ubb yields corroborating results: 280–297Ubb will be proton unbound and possibly decay by proton emission, 298–314Ubb will have alpha half-lives on the order of microseconds, and those heavier than 314Ubb will predominantly decay by spontaneous fission with short half-lives.[65] For the lighter alpha emitters that may be populated in fusion-evaporation reactions, some long decay chains leading down to known or reachable isotopes of lighter elements are predicted. Additionally, the isotopes 308–310Ubb are predicted to have half-lives under 1 microsecond,[47][65] too short for detection as a result of significantly lower binding energy for neutron numbers immediately above the N = 184 shell closure. Alternatively, a second island of stability with total half-lives of approximately 1 second may exist around Z ~ 124 and N ~ 198, though these nuclei will be difficult or impossible to reach using current experimental techniques.[62] However, these predictions are strongly dependent on the chosen nuclear mass models, and it is unknown which isotopes of unbibium will be most stable. Regardless, these nuclei will be hard to synthesize as no combination of obtainable target and projectile can provide enough neutrons in the compound nucleus. Even for nuclei reachable in fusion reactions, spontaneous fission and possibly also cluster decay[66] might have significant branches, posing another hurdle to identification of superheavy elements as they are normally identified by their successive alpha decays.
Chemical
Unbibium is predicted to be similar in chemistry to cerium and thorium, which have likewise four valence electrons above a noble gas core, although it may be more reactive. Additionally, unbibium is predicted to belong to a new block of valence g-electron atoms, although the g-block's position left of the f-block is speculative[67] and the 5g orbital is not expected to start filling until element 125. The predicted ground-state electron configuration of unbibium is either [Og] 7d1 8s2 8p1[1][2] or 8s2 8p2,[68] in contrast to the expected [Og] 5g2 8s2 in which the 5g orbital starts filling at element 121. (The two configurations are expected to be only separated by about 0.02 eV.)[68] In the superactinides, relativistic effects might cause a breakdown of the Aufbau principle and create overlapping of the 5g, 6f, 7d and 8p orbitals;[67] experiments on the chemistry of copernicium and flerovium provide strong indications of the increasing role of relativistic effects. As such, the chemistry of elements following unbibium becomes more difficult to predict.
Unbibium would most likely form a dioxide, UbbO2, and tetrahalides, such as UbbF4 and UbbCl4.[2] The main oxidation state is predicted to be IV, similar to cerium and thorium.[35] A first ionization energy of 5.651 eV and second ionization energy of 11.332 eV are predicted for unbibium; this and other calculated ionization energies are lower than the analogous values for thorium, suggesting that unbibium will be more reactive than thorium.[1][69]
Notes
- In nuclear physics, an element is called heavy if its atomic number is high; lead (element 82) is one example of such a heavy element. The term "superheavy elements" typically refers to elements with atomic number greater than 103 (although there are other definitions, such as atomic number greater than 100[6] or 112;[7] sometimes, the term is presented an equivalent to the term "transactinide", which puts an upper limit before the beginning of the hypothetical superactinide series).[8] Terms "heavy isotopes" (of a given element) and "heavy nuclei" mean what could be understood in the common language—isotopes of high mass (for the given element) and nuclei of high mass, respectively.
- In 2009, a team at JINR led by Oganessian published results of their attempt to create hassium in a symmetric 136Xe + 136Xe reaction. They failed to observe a single atom in such a reaction, putting the upper limit on the cross section, the measure of probability of a nuclear reaction, as 2.5 pb.[9] In comparison, the reaction that resulted in hassium discovery, 208Pb + 58Fe, had a cross section of ~20 pb (more specifically, 19+19
−11 pb), as estimated by the discoverers.[10] - The greater the excitation energy, the more neutrons are ejected. If the excitation energy is lower than energy binding each neutron to the rest of the nucleus, neutrons are not emitted; instead, the compound nucleus de-excites by emitting a gamma ray.[14]
- The definition by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party states that a chemical element can only be recognized as discovered if a nucleus of it has not decayed within 10−14 seconds. This value was chosen as an estimate of how long it takes a nucleus to acquire its outer electrons and thus display its chemical properties.[15] This figure also marks the generally accepted upper limit for lifetime of a compound nucleus.[16]
- This separation is based on that the resulting nuclei move past the target more slowly then the unreacted beam nuclei. The separator contains electric and magnetic fields whose effects on a moving particle cancel out for a specific velocity of a particle.[18] Such separation can also be aided by a time-of-flight measurement and a recoil energy measurement; a combination of the two may allow to estimate the mass of a nucleus.[19]
- Not all decay modes are caused by electrostatic repulsion. For example, beta decay is caused by the weak interaction.[24]
- Since mass of a nucleus is not measured directly but is rather calculated from that of another nucleus, such measurement is called indirect. Direct measurements are also possible, but for the most part they have remained unavailable for heaviest nuclei.[25] The first direct measurement of mass of a superheavy nucleus was reported in 2018 at LBNL.[26] Mass was determined from the location of a nucleus after the transfer (the location helps determine its trajectory, which is linked to the mass-to-charge ratio of the nucleus, since the transfer was done in presence of a magnet).[27]
- Spontaneous fission was discovered by Soviet physicist Georgy Flerov,[28] a leading scientist at JINR, and thus it was a "hobbyhorse" for the facility.[29] In contrast, the LBL scientists believed fission information was not sufficient for a claim of synthesis of an element. They believed spontaneous fission had not been studied enough to use it for identification of a new element, since there was a difficulty of establishing that a compound nucleus had only ejected neutrons and not charged particles like protons or alpha particles.[16] They thus preferred to link new isotopes to the already known ones by successive alpha decays.[28]
- For instance, element 102 was mistakenly identified in 1957 at the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockholm, Stockholm County, Sweden.[30] There were no earlier definitive claims of creation of this element, and the element was assigned a name by its Swedish, American, and British discoverers, nobelium. It was later shown that the identification was incorrect.[31] The following year, LBNL was unable to reproduce the Swedish results and announced instead their synthesis of the element; that claim was also disproved later.[31] JINR insisted that they were the first to create the element and suggested a name of their own for the new element, joliotium;[32] the Soviet name was also not accepted (JINR later referred to the naming of element 102 as "hasty").[33] The name "nobelium" remained unchanged on account of its widespread usage.[34]
- Four more elements were discovered after 1939 through synthesis, but were later found to also occur naturally: these were promethium, astatine, neptunium, and plutonium, all of which had been found by 1945.
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Cf
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