Two new elements added to the periodic table
JUN 07, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025370
Wired : Two new elements have been officially added to the periodic table: 114 and 116. They are the heaviest members of the table yet, with atomic weights of 289 and 292 atomic mass units, respectively. First discovered more than a decade ago, the two elements were recently granted official status by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics following extensive experimentation and a three-year review process. A key criterion was how the new elements relate to preexisting known elements. Official names have yet to be decided; the discoverers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, have proposed flerovium, after Soviet nuclear physicist Georgy Flyorov, and moscovium, after the administrative territorial division Moscow Oblast.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
