Nihonium

At a glance

Symbol

Nh

Atomic number

113

Mass number of its longest-lived isotope

[286]

Group

13

Period

7

Family

superheavy element

Electron configuration

[Rn] 5f¹⁴ 6d¹⁰ 7s² 7p¹ (predicted)

Electronegativity

not measured

On the table

Period 7, group 13. The other superheavy elements are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.

Electrons and bonding

Only a handful of atoms have ever been made, each lasting seconds or less, so its chemistry is predicted from its place in the table rather than measured.

Properties

State at 25 °C

not known

Physical properties

none measured; no more than a few atoms have ever existed at once

Where it is found

Not found in nature. It is made a few atoms at a time in particle accelerators by fusing lighter nuclei, and each atom decays within seconds to hours.

Discovery and name

Kosuke Morita's team at RIKEN in Japan made an atom of it in 2004 by fusing zinc and bismuth nuclei, and after years of running the experiment saw a third atom in 2012 that confirmed the discovery. It was named in 2016 after Nihon, a Japanese name for Japan.