Dr Dawn Shaughnessy - Discovery of Superheavy Elements - CPS 2021

The heavy element group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has had a long tradition of nuclear and radiochemistry dating back to the 1950’s. Some of the most exciting work has taken place in the last two decades (in collaboration with the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia) with the discovery of five new elements -114, 115, 116, 117, and 118. By pushing the boundaries of the periodic table, we can start to answer some of the most fundamental questions of nuclear science, such as the locations of the next “magic numbers” of protons and neutrons, and the possibility of an “Island of Stability” where nuclides would have lifetimes much longer than those currently observed in the heaviest elements. We have seen evidence of extra-stability in the heaviest nuclides leading to half-lives that are long enough for us to perform chemistry on these isotopes one atom at a time. Work is underway on developing an automated chemical system that will be used for studying chemical properties of the heaviest elements including element 114 where the chemical properties are completely unknown. In this overview the discovery of these new elements and the chemical experiments in progress will be discussed. This talk was delivered by Dr Dawn Shaughnessy from the heavy element group at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to the audience of the public, CPS members, and UCL staff and students on the 25th February 2021.