Chemistry Nexus

A news reports from IUPAC confirms the discoveries of elements 114 and 116. Proposals for the names of the two elements will follow in due course.

Discovery of 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).

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.