General Question

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

In the future will elements 112-118 and beyond be made stable?

Asked by RedDeerGuy1 (24454points) April 22nd, 2021

Or made useful even though they last for a limited time?

How many scientists working on that and more?
How much treasure is going on to it?
Can you link us to a site for updates?

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6 Answers

LostInParadise's avatar

What could possibly be done? This is not chemistry, which deals with changes at the electron level, but changes to the nucleus.

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

@LostInParadise Maybe tinkering with sub atomic properties of the atom? Maybe higher than 118 atoms might be stable? Also maybe the unstable atoms could be used by constantly recreating them long enough to make something awesome?
Maybe a dissolving energy can change atoms on contact? Like making a metal that can withstand the heat of the sun? In a spaceship?

I am wondering if we can constantly make a 112 plus atom at the same speed as it is destroyed long enough to find a use for it?

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
seawulf575's avatar

Probably not. The problem is that there is not a way to do it. If you notice, most of the naturally occurring radioactive elements have one thing in common: they have large nuclei. The neutron to proton ratio starts changing. When a nucleus gets too big, the attractive forces in it become weaker, making it unstable. To gain stability, the nucleus gives up energy either in the form of beta, x-ray, gamma, or alpha decay, Gamma and x-ray decay typically don’t get the entire job done. When beta decay happens, a proton is giving up energy in the form of a charged particle, thus losing its charge and restoring more stability to the neutron to proton ratio. Only very large atoms undergo alpha decay. In this method, an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) are ejected from the nucleus in an effort to restore the neutron/proton ratio.
If the atom does beta decay or alpha decay, it is no longer the original element. So trying to make the upper elements stable would result in them no longer being the upper elements.

LuckyGuy's avatar

I have always liked this (fictional!) periodic table of the elements from the Star Trek future.
Fifth Interstellar Geophysical Conference Standard

Unless some new force or orbital rings are discovered, and we have no idea if they exist, the elements will be as they are.

kritiper's avatar

If they could, I think they would have done it by now…

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