All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 117, a superheavy element
The most recently discovered element, a superheavy relative of the halogens named after Tennessee.
Period 7, group 17. The other superheavy elements are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Tennessine has 117 electrons, one for every proton, so the atom carries no charge. Below are the same 117 electrons written two ways.
1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 3d¹⁰ 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴ 5s² 5p⁶ 5d¹⁰ 5f¹⁴ 6s² 6p⁶ 6d¹⁰ 7s² 7p⁵
Short form: [Rn] 5f¹⁴ 6d¹⁰ 7s² 7p⁵, where [Rn] stands for the 86 electrons radon already has.
That list runs by shell. In the order the subshells fill it reads [Rn] 7s² 5f¹⁴ 6d¹⁰ 7p⁵, because a subshell fills by its energy, not by its shell number.
The simple form counts electrons shell by shell. The orbital form says which subshell each one sits in: s holds 2, p holds 6, d holds 10 and f holds 14. Shell 4 here is 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴, and 2 + 6 + 10 + 14 is 32.
Tennessine sits in period 7 and has 7 shells. The period number counts the shells.
No one has measured this configuration. Only a few atoms of tennessine have ever existed, so it is predicted from the pattern of the table.
The outer shell holds 7 electrons. Those are the ones tennessine can lose, gain or share, so they are the ones that decide what it bonds with.
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.
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.
A team from Dubna, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and Lawrence Livermore made it in 2010 by bombarding berkelium-249, produced at Oak Ridge, with calcium-48. It was named in 2016 after Tennessee, home of Oak Ridge and Vanderbilt.
Research only.