Ununseptium
Symbol: Uus
Atomic Number: 117
Atomic Mass: Unknown
Melting Point: Unknown
Boiling Point: Unknown
Number of Protons: 117
Number of Electrons: 117
Number of Neutrons: Unknown
Classification: Halogen
Crystal Structure: Unknown
Density @ 293 K: Unknown
Color: Unknown
The name ununseptium comes from the naming system initiated for new chemical elements by International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). This naming system ascribes a syllable to each number within the elements atomic number followed by the suffix “ium”. By this system un-un-sept means 1-1-7. The system also gives the atomic symbol to be used for the element using the first letter from each syllable hence Uus.
So why is so little known about the element ununseptium? Well very simply it has not yet been produced. The name has been inserted into the periodic table as a holding name for a potential discovery of a new element.
Ununseptium will never be found naturally as it is a super-heavy element. These super heavy elements are produced when the atoms of one element are bombarded by the accelerated ions of another. This collision causes the two elements to combine to form a new element with the loss of one or more neutrons.
There are a few things we can deduce about this element from the behavior of other super-heavy elements as well as its position in the periodic table.
Ununseptium will be radioactive with a very short half-life measured in milliseconds or possibly even nanoseconds. It is highly unlikely that more than a few atoms of the element will ever be produced and therefore it will never have any industrial uses.
The element will be in Period 7, Group 17 and p-block of the periodic table. This puts it into the Halogen Group along with such elements as fluorine, chlorine and iodine. If any quantity could be produced the element would be solid at room temperature. As for appearance, it would probably have a metallic sheen and be dark colored. So will ununseptium ever be produced? It is quite probable that it will. Researchers around the world have been looking for super-heavy for years. Many groups of scientists such as those at Gesellschaft fur Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany have found elements that at one time were thought never to have been possible. For now it is a matter of watch this space and you never know when one of the collisions will produce ununseptium
