In February this year, a new element, Copernicium was added to the periodic table. This element has a proton number of 112, and was at that time, the heaviest element to be officially added. Now, yet another element is on the verge of being included in this table -- element 114. So far, only two teams of scientists in Russia and America have been successful in producing this element, and in total 15 atoms (15 atoms, not 15 moles of atoms) of element 114 have been synthesised.
Element 114 is produced by combining calcium atoms and plutonium atoms. Each calcium atom has 20 protons, while each plutonium atom has 94 protons. When they fuse, they form a new atom with a total of 20 + 94 = 114 protons. Like Copernicium, atoms of element 114 are very radioactive and break down into smaller particles very quickly. On average, these atoms only existed for a few tenths of a second.
Now that the scientists are able to produce element 114, they have to discern the general chemical properties of this new element. To put it simply, they need to know whether they should classify element 114 as a metal or a noble gas. To do this, the scientists need to produce and capture these atoms, and test if they will adhere to a surface made of gold. If they do, element 114 is a metal. If they do not, element 114 is a noble gas as such atoms do not form any attractions with gold (Can you think of the reason why?).
Here is a video about this new element:
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