ELEMENT 118


118

Three atoms of element 118 were produced in June 1999 by a team working at The Lawrence Berkely Laboratory in America.

By crashing a beam of krypton-86 atoms into a target of lead-208 atoms several excited compound nuclei were produced. These almost immediately emit a neutron becoming atoms of element 118 with 118 protons and 175 neutrons, being atoms of the isotope 118-293.

Less than a millisecond later the isotope 119-293 decays by alpha decay into an atom of element 116, the isotope 116-289. This also decayed by alpha decay into element 114, the isotope 114-285.

The isotope 118-293 is the heaviest isotope produced to date, and as such is nearer the 'island of stability' thought to exist around atomic number 116 to 118 than any produced so far. Even so, it's half life is less than one millisecond.

NOTE - ALL THE ABOVE WAS WITHDRAWN BY THE EXPERIMENTERS in 2000AD, THEY WERE MISTAKEN, THEY DIDN'T MAKE ELEMENT 118 at ALL.

But now, in 2006, element-118 has been made by a team in Dubna by firing calcium-48 at a californium-245 target. The team claims a certainty of this of 99.99% based upon three separate observations of the decay products of element 118.

Element 118 belongs to the inert gases, and so should be (a very radioactive) gas.

Claim to fame: Of those known, element 118 has the highest atomic number.