A new element in the periodic table may be available

To expand the periodic table, it may be time to use titanium.

A new study lays the groundwork to expand the periodic table with a search for element 120, which will be done by slamming titanium atoms, or electrically charged ions, into a Californian target. If produced, the new element would have an atomic nucleus filled with 120 protons and occupy a new row of the periodic table.

In a proof-of-principle experiment, scientists created the familiar element livermorium, element 116, using titanium for the first time. The experiment focused a beam of titanium ions onto a plutonium target. After 22 days of searching, the effort yielded two livermorium atoms, the researchers reported July 23 at the Nuclear Structure 2024 meeting in Lemont, Ill. A similar experiment, aimed at creating element 120, is feasible and would take about 10 times longer. researchers predict.

The periodic table currently has 118 chemical elements (SN: 11/30/16). The five heaviest elements were all produced using a calcium-48 beam. This is a variety, or isotope, of calcium with 28 neutrons in its nucleus. To produce these different heavy elements, scientists exchanged the target element. The more protons in the nucleus of the target element, the further along the periodic table the product would be.

But that tactic has become unsustainable: potential future targets are radioactive and short-lived, says nuclear scientist Jacklyn Gates of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, who presented the result at the meeting. Hence the transition to titanium-50 beams, which will allow scientists to search for new elements with more practical objectives. (The target material for element 120 is easier to work with than for 119, which is why scientists are skipping an element.) “If you want to push beyond what we currently know about the periodic table, you have to find a new way to make heavy elements.”