Synthetic Elements

The creation of the 4 new elements in the laboratory using lighter elements.
Everyone of you has heard of the periodic table of elements, or at least seen it. This table classifies all the atoms in the universe into 118 different types, known as elements.
24 of these elements are synthetic or man-made. Meaning they are created by man in the laboratory.
The synthetic elements are those with atomic numbers 95–118, as shown inside the yellow box.
The mechanism for the creation of a synthetic element is to force additional protons onto the nucleus of an element with an atomic number lower than 95.
In creating a brand-new element it requires loading an atom's nucleus with more protons.
Remember the atom is the smallest particle of an element and it consist of the three subatomic particles: electron, neutron and proton.
Proton and neutron resides inside the nucleus while the electron revolves around the nucleus.
In 2016, four new elements were added to the periodic table. That means the seventh period of the periodic table is complete.

Those four elements are numbered 113, 115, 117 and 118. The research groups that discovered them were from Japan, Russia, and the United States. Thus their name.
Three of these elements were named after the places where they were discovered. Their names are Nihonium, Moscovium and Tennessine. The fourth element is named Oganesson and it was named after a Russian nuclear physicist named Yuri Oganessian.

All four of the newest elements are highly unstable super heavy metals. Heavy elements are those that have an atomic number larger than 92. Super heavy elements usually have atomic numbers larger than 112 and they are also more radioactive and unstable than other elements.
Super heavy elements do not occur in nature. The new elements were created in laboratories. Scientists use machines called particle accelerators to make ions of one element crash into the ions of another element. Ions are charged atoms. When the nuclei crash together, they may join together. If the nuclei join, a new element is created. But these artificially created elements only exist for a fraction of a second before they decay into other elements.

The new elements all decay quickly because their nuclei are packed with a large number of protons. Protons are positively charged, so they repel each other. This makes the atoms highly unstable.