Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Describe the general process by which new elements are synthesized

New elements are synthesized by the highly energetic collisions between nuclei of different elements that may result in the generation of nuclei with a higher atomic number. Particle accelerators are commonly used to provide very high speeds to the ions of colliding elements to generate synthetic elements.
Of the known elements, only 94 are naturally occurring elements and 24 others have been synthesized from these elements.
One of the first synthetic elements to be produced by humans was Curium (atomic number = 96) in the year 1944. Since then, 23 other elements (such as Americium, Berkelium, Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium, Bohrium, etc.) have been synthesized.
It should be noted that the process of synthesizing new elements from existing elements is a very expensive and time-consuming process. An example is the attempts made at producing a synthetic element with an atomic number 119. Experiments have been conducted to try to combine Einsteinium and Calcium; Berkelium and Titanium; Curium and Vanadium, etc. However, scientists have not been successful so far.

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