Do you know the mysterious "No. 119" element? In 1869, the Russian scientist Mendeleev discovered the periodic law of the elements, according to this periodic law, 63 elements such as gold, silver, copper, iron, and oxygen that had been discovered at that time could be arranged into a periodic table, and each row in the table was called a period, and each column was called a family, and the elements of the same family had the same properties. With the development of science, 118 elements have been discovered by human beings. There are also seven full periods on the periodic table. Scientists all over the world hope to discover element 119 and start a new elemental cycle, and Chinese scientists are also working on it.
Discover the mysterious element of "119".
Reporter: After so many years of scientific research, where is the current research direction of Chinese scientists on this table?
Zhang Zhiyuan, researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: The heaviest element on the periodic table is element 118. After the synthesis of element 118, everyone wanted to craft element 119. These 118 elements just fill all the 7 periods of the periodic table, so the 119th element that we may synthesize in the future should be ranked in the 8th period of the periodic table. So this is also a core scientific goal of our research on superheavy elements, to synthesize the next new element.
According to reports, in the periodic table, elements with atomic numbers greater than 103 are called superheavy elements, and superheavy elements from No. 113 to No. 118 were discovered and named by scientists from Japan, Russia, the United States and other countries around 2016. Whichever country's laboratory discovers a new element first, that country or laboratory has the right to name the new element. At present, countries with strong scientific research strength in the world are carrying out exploration and research of new elements, but due to technical limitations, the birth of this new element is still a mystery.
Zhang Zhiyuan, a researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: It is very difficult to synthesize such a nucleus to have 119 protons in its nucleus. The method of generating this new element has changed, and the original technical route of synthesis from elements 114 to 118 is no longer applicable until 119. We need to find a new route to do this experiment on Elemental 119.
The mainland has made an important technological leap to help explore new elements
Most of the elements at the bottom of the periodic table have a certain degree of radioactivity, so the stability of these elements is relatively poor, and a very few elements can only exist for a very short time, so these elements cannot exist in the natural environment of the earth, and can only be synthesized by the laboratory, and scientists believe that the same is true of the unknown element 119. Scientists all over the world are trying to synthesize this element in the laboratory. Recently, the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made an important technological leap in the superweight element research accelerator device, which has laid a good foundation for the mainland to take the lead in realizing the synthesis of new elements.
CCTV reporter Chu Erjia: This large-scale scientific research equipment is the China Superheavy Element Research Accelerator at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has a very long linear accelerator that reaches a length of more than 50 meters. Since the overall completion of this unit in 2022, it has been running stably for more than 10,000 hours.
A new element "Quest for Discovery": the Turbo Element Research Accelerator
According to reports, in 2019, the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to transform and upgrade the original proton linear accelerator into a heavy ion accelerator, making it a special accelerator for the study of superheavy elements. After nearly 3 years of transformation, this device has become a powerful tool for the research of new elements with leading technology in the world, and has successfully realized the stable operation of the argon-40 beam with a flow intensity of 14.8 particles and an energy of 224 trillion electron volts.
Sun Zhiyu, Director of the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: For example, if I want to synthesize element 115, under the beam condition of one particle microampere, I can get about one particle of element 115 in a day. But if I have a beam of 10 microamps, then I can get 10 particles a day, and in the same amount of time, I can do more detailed research or I can get some elements that have a lower probability of occurring.
A new generation of new elements is under construction
In order to achieve the scientific goal of synthesizing new elements as soon as possible, the mainland's new generation of major national scientific and technological infrastructure, the strong current heavy ion accelerator, is also under construction and is expected to be completed around 2025. At that time, the mainland will add a new element to "explore the sharp weapon".
The construction of the strong current heavy ion accelerator device has started in Huizhou, Guangdong Province in 2018, which will provide the world's highest pulse current heavy ion beam and the highest precision nuclear mass ring spectrometer for scientific research in related fields in the mainland, and create world-class experimental conditions for the basic research of nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics in the mainland.
Zhang Zhiyuan, researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: In the future, the beam intensity of the strong current heavy ion accelerator in Huizhou will be higher than that of our current superheavy element accelerator device. If we were to do experiments on the synthesis of new elements on this new device, it might be easier to shorten the beam time and better to observe the whole event.
What is the use of the new element?
What is the use of the new elements that researchers from all over the world have spent a lot of time and energy exploring, and what impact will they have on human beings?
History shows that each new element is "very useful"
According to experts, one of the characteristics of basic research is that no one knows what it is useful before doing it, but once it is done, it may have great application value. The study of new elements is such a research field, before its birth, it is difficult for anyone to judge which field it will have an impact in the future, but from past experience, the discovery of each element will have a huge impact on human production and life.
Zhang Zhiyuan, researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: From the perspective of our nuclear physics research, theory predicts that among the heaviest elements, there are a number of relatively long-lived atomic nuclei. If we can synthesize these long-lived nuclei experimentally, then its future use may be as nuclear fuel, and perhaps as some raw materials for radiomedicine.
Sun Zhiyu, Director of the Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: Our natural world is composed of various elements, and how many elements exist in our nature is a natural problem. The search for the discovery of new elements and the limits of their existence is an important test for our existing scientific theories. At the same time, in this process, the various technologies and methods developed also have broad application prospects. For some isotope drugs, for the reprocessing of some radioactive waste (fuel) materials, etc., it is a very basic necessary condition.
Source: CCTV news client