January 04, 2016
The seventh row of the periodic table is complete following the discoveries of four new elements, according to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
Scientists from Japan, Russia and the U.S. will now be invited to suggest permanent names and symbols for the newly discovered elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, the IUPAC said in a statement last week.
"The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row," professor Jan Reedijk, president of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC, said in a statement.
"IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalizing names and symbols for these elements temporarily named as ununtrium, (Uut or element 113), ununpentium (Uup, element 115), ununseptium (Uus, element 117), and ununoctium (Uuo, element 118)."
The RIKEN collaboration team in Japan was credited for having fulfilled the criteria for element 113.
Elements 115, 117 and 118 were discovered by a collaboration between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
