Nihonium
Nihonium is a synthetic superheavy element and the first — so far the only — element named after an East Asian country: "Nihon" is one of the Japanese words for Japan. It was created in a particle accelerator by fusing zinc nuclei with a bismuth target, and it sits in group 13 of the periodic table, below thallium. Every atom of it ever produced has existed for only a brief moment before decaying away.
- Group · Period
- 13 · 7
- At room temp
- solid
- Melts at
- Not yet available
- Density
- Not yet available
- Discovered
- 2004
Uses
Nihonium has no practical, industrial or medical use of any kind, and its extreme rarity and instability mean it never will. Its value is purely scientific — each atom produced and detected helps researchers test theories of nuclear stability and extend understanding of the periodic table’s outer limits.
History
Nihonium was first produced by a team at Japan’s RIKEN research institute, who fused accelerated zinc nuclei with a bismuth target and identified the element through the radioactive decay chains of a handful of resulting atoms, with their earliest successful results reported in the mid-2000s. After a lengthy verification process that also weighed competing claims from a Dubna-Livermore collaboration, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry formally credited the RIKEN team with the discovery and approved the name nihonium in 2016.
Fun facts
- Nihonium is named after Nihon, one of the Japanese names for Japan, making it the first element named after a country in East Asia.
- Nihonium was discovered by a team at the RIKEN research institute in Japan, one of the few superheavy elements not first credited to a European, Russian or American laboratory.
- Only a small number of nihonium atoms have ever been confirmed, each detected through its distinctive chain of radioactive decays.
Frequently asked questions
Does nihonium have any real-world use?
No — nihonium has no commercial, industrial or medical applications. It exists solely as a subject of nuclear physics research, produced one atom at a time under painstaking experimental conditions.
How is nihonium made?
Nihonium is produced by accelerating a beam of zinc nuclei and firing it at a bismuth target for extended periods, so that the two nuclei occasionally fuse into a single nihonium nucleus. Its creation is confirmed by tracking the unique sequence of radioactive decays that follows.
Why is nihonium named after Japan?
It honors the country where it was discovered: a team at the RIKEN research institute in Japan produced and confirmed the element, and was awarded the right to name it by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, choosing "Nihon," a native Japanese word for Japan.
Isotopes
7 known isotopes
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| Isotope | Natural abundance | Half-life | Decay mode | Mass excess | Binding energy / nucleon | Decay width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nh-284 | — | 0.97 s | Alpha decay (100%) | 166,591 keV | 7,173 keV | 4.70 × 10-16 eV |
| Nh-286 | — | 9.5 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission | 169,957 keV | 7,168 keV | 4.80 × 10-17 eV |
| Nh-290 | — | 2 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (50%) | 178,315 keV | 7,152 keV | 2.28 × 10-16 eV |
Show all 7 isotopes
| Nh-278 | — | 1.4 ms | Alpha decay (100%) | 159,030 keV | 7,181 keV | 3.26 × 10-13 eV |
| Nh-282 | — | 0.07 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission | 163,729 keV | 7,177 keV | 6.52 × 10-15 eV |
| Nh-283 | — | 0.07 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (25%) | 164,563 keV | 7,177 keV | 6.52 × 10-15 eV |
| Nh-285 | — | 0.93 s | Alpha decay (100%), Spontaneous fission (5%) | 167,768 keV | 7,172 keV | 4.91 × 10-16 eV |