Elements 113 & 115: Uses & Benefits

[Mackay1011]

Hi, I don't know if I have posted in the right area but i read about these new super heavy elements, what are these elements and what can they be used for exactly?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/02/040203234610.htm

 

[humanino]

Others might feel differently, but my opinion is that the search for super heavy elements is not about chemistry or technology, at least not now, it is about understanding the nuclei structures, binding potentials, ... test the models somehow.

 

[Norman]

I am with Humanino on this. While these super heavy elements can have interesting decay modes that can lead to interesting isotopes for use in chemistry, from a fundamental viewpoint, I find interest in their ability to test our understanding of structure and physics far from stability.

 

[Mackay1011]

I don't actually understand anything you to have said hehe, i mean in the periodic table, every element or whatever you call them has a use, so what COULD 113 & 115 be used for? a ruff guesses are more then welcome, please don't say i don't no lol

 

[meopemuk]

I don't actually understand anything you to have said hehe, i mean in the periodic table, every element or whatever you call them has a use, so what COULD 113 & 115 be used for? a ruff guesses are more then welcome, please don't say i don't no lol

Most likely these new nuclei are very short-lived. Moreover, it seems that just a few of them were actually prepared in the experiment. So, they are not useful for any practical purpose at this moment. Maybe in 50 years someone will find a method to stabilize these nuclei. Maybe then...

 

[Mackay1011]

Thanks meo.. I don't want to go off topic to much but for example how would you stabilize an element? mix it with other atom, compounds or whatever lol, don't know much about this sort of stuff, but i do find it interesting

 

[Norman]

You may be interested in this link Mackay1011:

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Uuo/key.html

According to that link $^{293}_{118}Uuo$ decays via alpha emission in about one tenth of a millisecond. ($10^{-4}$ seconds)

 

[meopemuk]

Thanks meo.. I don't want to go off topic to much but for example how would you stabilize an element? mix it with other atom, compounds or whatever lol, don't know much about this sort of stuff, but i do find it interesting

I don't know. Currently there is no way to do that. Who knows, maybe some stabilization methods will be invented in 50 years. Without such a stabilization, there is no way to use these elements in practical life.

 

[humanino]

It does not seem likely to me that any time in the near future, anybody can even give sens to the concept of "stabilizing an element". You would need to change the potential, the forces, which would drastically affect the nucleus structure, thus probably changing the electronic structure as well, and eventually getting different chemical properties. My point is that, if you somehow "stabilize" an unstable element, can you still call it the same name ? It would be very different from the original one.

 

[Mackay1011]

You may be interested in this link Mackay1011:

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Uuo/key.html

According to that link $^{293}_{118}Uuo$ decays via alpha emission in about one tenth of a millisecond. ($10^{-4}$ seconds)

Decays? so its un-usable when its decayed, and it decays in 1 tenth of a millisecond, how will scientists be able to conduct any kind of experiment on it?

 

[jtbell]

You do it very quickly!

Seriously, though, high-energy particle physicists also do experiments involving very short-lived particles. Basically, you don't study the particle directly while it is in flight. Instead, you study it by way of its decay products, by applying various conservation laws to deduce its properties.

 

[Astronuc]

Others might feel differently, but my opinion is that the search for super heavy elements is not about chemistry or technology, at least not now, it is about understanding the nuclei structures, binding potentials, ... test the models somehow.

That's exactly the case.

Transuranics heavier than Cm do not have long half-lives and therefore are of use only as humanino stated - in understanding nuclear physics and nuclear stability. The hope had been to find stable isotopes, i.e. isotopes with half-lives on the order of centuries, millenia or longer.

Cm-247 has a half-life of ~16 million years, and is one of the more stable transuranics. However, the transuranics have significant radiotoxicity, so their applications are extremely limited. They are also very expensive!

Heavy elements are 'heavy' so they have no practical use for most material applications. They are a potential energy storage system, but creating, storing and using them is rather impractical because of the cost and the fact that they have short half-lives. There are much better (and much less expensive) ways to store or produce energy.

 

[ulech21]

About The Cost

im a high school student, and I am doing a report on the discovery of element 113 and 115, can some1 tell me the cost of this discovery??thnx,please send me a pm if you know.

 

[Astronuc]

Ele 113 - http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Uut/key.html

Ele 115 - http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Uup/key.html

The actual cost depends on the funds allocated to the specific project. Both elements have been reported by a group at Dubna (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at the U400 cyclotron with the Dubna gas-filled recoil separator, DGFRS) in Russia in a collaboration also involving scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA.

 

[Riogho]

I remember reading somewhere, or hearing from someone that element 117 is supposedly supposed to be stable enough for us to be able to do something with it, but we havn't been able to get anything that will decay into making it yet. \

Am i right?

 

[Ferrus]

Planckium, Feynmanium, Darwinium, Newtonium, Lavoisium or Diracium seem likely candidates for names if you ask me.