Scientists take major step toward creating the heaviest element ever

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have successfully used a new method to create livermorium, one of the heaviest elements known. The achievement, using a titanium bar, represents a significant step toward producing even heavier elements, notably unbinilium, which has 120 protons.

The process used in this breakthrough involves heating the rare isotope titanium-50 to nearly 1650 °C (3000 °F). This high temperature releases ions that are then targeted to another element, in this case plutonium. This new approach to element synthesis has successfully produced livermorium, but its real importance lies in its potential to help create unbinilium, the heaviest element in the periodic table.

Livermorium, first synthesized in 2000, has an atomic number of 116, making it lighter than oganesson, the currently heaviest element. The successful creation of livermorium using the titanium method is seen as a critical test run for the more ambitious goal of synthesizing unbinilium. Researchers believe that by fusing titanium with californium-249, they can achieve the creation of unbinilium more efficiently than previous methods have allowed.

The Berkeley Lab experiment lasted 22 days, during which the team managed to produce just two atoms of livermorium. Despite the modest yield, the experiment demonstrated that the titanium beam method is viable for synthesizing superheavy elements. It marks a return to the forefront of the superheavy element race for Berkeley Lab, a leader in element discovery throughout the 20th century.

The successful creation of livermorium with titanium validates this new production method and lays the foundation for future efforts to create unbinilium. Scientists are optimistic that this approach will lead to the synthesis of unbinilium, which will open up new possibilities for studying the properties of superheavy elements and the limits of atomic nuclei. This research, crucial for exploring the theoretical “island of stability,” is expected to provide valuable insights into the behavior of atoms at their most extreme.