[gippgig]

It's official - The IUPAC/IUPAP JWP has accepted the discovery of 114 & 116. Download the free report at www.iupac.org/publications/pac/asap/.

[Evil_Crow]

German scientists stopped the efforts for the creation of element 120.  They may continue in near future again.   

Well... apart from "academic" reasons super heavy elements have not any practical use so these money are for nothing (almost). 

[Dan1195]

Regarding element 120. Sounds like GSI will attempt to continue the experiment in a couple months. The problem is the cross-sections are at the very limit of detectability. Estimates I have seen give the expected cross-sections to be similar to that with which RIKEN observed w/element 113. RIKEN has accumulated around 9 months of accelerator time in 3 separate experiments and only found 2 atoms of 278-113. Without higher intensity beams getting any more than 1-2 atoms of 120 will be very difficult with current tech.

[Borek]

I know it is off topic, but in a way it is funny. German scientists trying to produce new elements while their government closes nuclear plants sounds monthypythonesque to me.

[Evil_Crow]

I know it is off topic, but in a way it is funny. German scientists trying to produce new elements while their government closes nuclear plants sounds monthypythonesque to me.

Dear Borek, the nuclear plants of Germany are irrelevant with the center of research for heavy ions known as "GSI Helmholtz, in Darmstadt". The center will continue to work no matter if they close the plants or not. (Because the governments change...)

[Dan1195]

Dubna has proposed the names Flerovium and Moscovium for 114 and 116 respectively. Moscovium sounds a bit hokey, but since we already have Californium and Hassium....

[ATMyller]

And Dubnium and Darmstadtium.

[gippgig]

The discoverers have proposed and IUPAC has tentatively approved the names flerovium (Fl) for 114 & livermorium (Lv) for 116. See www.iupac.org/web/nt/2011-12-01_name_element_114_116.

[gippgig]

The names are official - www.iupac.org/news/news-detail/article/element-114-is-named-flerovium-and-element-116-is-named-livermorium.html.

[Dan1195]

Saw some new presentations from recent conferences at Texas A&M and FUSHE2012. A few key points:

1. Radioactive Ion Beams (RIB) are not going to be intense enough in the near term to produce more neutron rich elements with Z>110. Could be used to produce heavier isotopes of lighter transactinides.

2. Elements 119-120 might be the last to be discovered in the near future for two reasons: Decrease in cross-section due to moving away from Ca-48 as a projectile (elements beyond Cf and too short lived and cannot be produced in enough quanitity to be used as target material). potentional of lifetimes of Z>120 to be less that 1 microsecond, which is not long enough to reach the detector prior to decay.

3. Pulsed reactors could potentially be used to bypass the "Fm-258" block when it comes to simply adding neutrons to reach the superheavy island. Multiple nuclear explosions are also mentioned, (but there are treaties which would be a problem when it comes to using the latter option....not explicitly mentioned in the presentations)

4. Potential of getting successive EC decays into long lived superheavy nuclei. Would need new detectors as current apparatus cannot detect EC decay. This is why we cannot say for certain whether the long lived Db nuclei at the end of the Z=115 chains decay by SF or EC.

5. Talks about need to fill be gap between "cold fusion" and "hot fusion" superheavies. (i.e. Between Cn-277 and Cn-281, etc.) 

New data from facilities:

1. Total of 31 chains from 115-288 known. All decay by alpha to Db-268
2. Second 115-287 chain. We now have a half-life value for Db-271 of 1.2 seconds (from 1 atom as the first chain from a few years ago missed the alpha decay of this nuclide).
3. Three new 115-289 chains. All Z=115 chains are from Dubna
4. RIKEN: 5th Cn-277 chain. Also trying for 3rd 113-278 chain.