User:Gcchemistry/Unbitrium

The name unbitrium is used as a placeholder, such as in scientific articles about the search for element 123. Transuranic elements beyond californium are always artificially produced, and usually end up being named for a scientist or the location of a laboratory that does work in atomic physics.

See systematic element name.

The name unbitrium is a systematic element name, used as a placeholder until it is confirmed by other research groups and the IUPAC decides on a name. Usually, the name suggested by the discoverer(s) is chosen.^{[2][9][10][11]}

Unbitrium is expected to be in a new group of elements called superactinides^[13]. These should behave differently from other groups of elements (those already known).

Calculations have shown that ³²⁶Ubt would be the most stable isotope^[14][11]. The closed neutron shells say that ³⁰⁷Ubt and ³¹⁹Ubt would be the most stable isotopes.^[8]

As of December 2012, no attempt has ever been made to synthesize element 123. Right now, there aren't any planned attempts to synthesize unbitrium either^{[n 1][15]}.

The only practical isotopes that would be longer-lived than others are ³⁰⁷Ubt (N=184) and ³¹⁹Ubt (N=196)^[8]. They would be relatively stable. However, unbitrium is not expected to be the most stable element in the island of stability. Unbihexium is expected to be the most stable element on the island of stability.^[16]

The stability of nuclei decreases greatly with the increase in atomic number after plutonium, the heaviest primordial element, so that all isotopes with an atomic number above 101 decay radioactively with a half-life under a day, with an exception of dubnium-268. No elements with atomic numbers above 82 (after lead) have stable isotopes.^[17] Nevertheless, because of reasons not very well understood yet, there is a slight increased nuclear stability around atomic numbers 110–114, which leads to the appearance of what is known in nuclear physics as the "island of stability". This concept, proposed by University of California professor Glenn Seaborg, explains why superheavy elements last longer than predicted.^[18] In this region of the periodic table, N=184 and N=196 have been suggested as closed neutron shells. Therefore the isotopes of most interest are ³⁰⁷Ubt and ³¹⁹Ubt, for these might be considerably longer-lived than other isotopes. Element 123 is predicted to lie within the island of stability, with element 126 predicted to lie near its peak.

Leonard I. Schiff^[6] predicted that unbitrium would have the electron configuration [Uuo] 8s² 5g² 7d¹. That means that unbitrium would be the first element to have g electrons.^[7]

Unbitrium would probably be a solid under standard conditions (if a large enough quantity is ever made).^[19]

In the fictional universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation, this element was apparently discovered and named. The episode "Rascals" depicted a "trans-periodic table," in a schoolroom set, which depicted element number 123 as being named jamesium, symbol Rj, having an atomic weight of 326^[4]. The graphic was created by set artists, probably a homage to designer Richard D. James, and listed this element in the fictional "gamma series."^{[2][9][10][20]}