By To expand the periodic table, it might be time to go titanium.
A new study lays the groundwork to expand the periodic table with a search for element 120, to be made by slamming electrically charged titanium atoms, or ions, into a californium target. If produced, the new element would have an atomic nucleus brimming with 120 protons and would occupy a new row of the periodic table.
In a proof-of-principle experiment, scientists created the known element livermorium, element 116, using titanium for the first time. The experiment focused a beam of titanium ions onto a target of plutonium. After 22 days of searching, the effort yielded two atoms of livermorium, researchers reported July 23 at the Nuclear Structure 2024 meeting in Lemont, Ill. A similar experiment, aimed at creating element 120, is feasible and would take about 10 times as long, the researchers predict.
