Periodic Table: New Elements

Four chemical elements have been formally added to the periodic table.

17:25 05 January 2016

Four chemical elements have been formally verified and added to the periodic table by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on 30 December 2015. This is the first since 2011, when elements 114 and 116 were added.

 

IUPAC said that a team of Russian and American researchers provided sufficient evidence to claim the discovery of elements 115, 117, and 118. Meanwhile, element 113 was discovered by a Japanese team at the Riken Institute. The teams were invited to name the now-confirmed elements, which can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property, or a scientist.

 

"The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row. IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalising names and symbols for these elements," said Prof Jan Reedijk, president of the inorganic chemistry division of IUPAC.