Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 404 143 Element No.

In addition to the unknown element 43 sandwiched between element 42, molybdenum and element 44, ruthenium, which fascinates chemists and mineralogists, there are still many gaps in the periodic table. Waiting for them to be filled in and discovered.

Not to mention the transuranic elements after element 92, uranium, people are also curious about what the blank element at number 85 should be when counting the seven elements from uranium forward.

Element No. 85 belongs to Group VIIA on the periodic table, and is ranked in front of Group 0 elements.

Just like the noble gases that are also known as Group 0 elements, the elements in Group VIIA also have another name, called halogen elements.

Directly above the blank position of element No. 85 are four halogen elements that have been discovered by humans, namely fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), and iodine (I).

The previous element of element 1898, element , was polonium (Po) discovered in by Chen Muwu’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Curie, and her husband, Mr. Curie.

The next element of element 1899, element 1908, started from the discovery of thorium vapor by Chen Muwu's teacher, Rutherford, in , to , Ramsey confirmed that it was a new element, and it was also The sixth rare gas is radon (Rn).

Therefore, on the periodic table of elements, whether before, after or above element No. 85, elements appear in three positions. Only element No. 85 is still blank.

Although it is known that the sixth group 0 element is still a gas non-metal, chemists are still not sure whether this fifth halogen element is a metal.

——Unless someone can find out what element it is, then it will be self-evident whether it is a metal element or not.

Chen Muwu asked Frederic to go to Uppsala University to look for natural radioactive sources that can produce alpha particles, as well as the element metal bismuth, which is ranked at the 83rd position in the periodic table of elements, in order to discover the mysterious eighth Element 15.

The reason why Chen Muwu did not use protons to bombard element 84 was not because polonium was radioactive, but because polonium was too expensive and Uppsala University would not necessarily lend it to them, or they simply could not. No?

Fortunately, there are still alpha particles containing two protons in the world, so by using alpha particles to bombard element 83, they can also find the element 85 they want.

Bi+α→X(At)+2n;

Bi+α→X(At)+3n;

Bi+α→X(At)+4n.

Chen Muwu felt that it would be good to regard element 85 as the first artificially synthesized element in human history.

The only drawback is that this new element cannot be named "Chinese halogen" because the Chinese etymology is China, plus the suffix -ine of the halogen element, and the combination of the two will become Chine.

The word Chine still means China in French, which can cause confusion.

But this is not a problem for Chen Muwu, because when he discovers a new element, in addition to naming it after his own country, he can also name it after the name of a university or research institute.

Of course, Chen Muwu would definitely not name it (Gustafine) after Gustaf, nor would he name it (Cambridgine) after Cambridge University.

Chen Muwu only planned to choose between the two names he came up with. One was to name it (Cavendishine) after the Cavendish Laboratory (Cavendish), or name it after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Tangshine.

In fact, if element No. 85 could have been discovered a few years earlier, Chen Muwu had his third option.

That is to name it Beijing Halogen (Shibei) (Beijine) after the capital of China, Beijing.

It's a pity that the time is too late. China's new Jinjing government will soon move the capital from Beijing to Jinjing, and Beijing will be renamed Beiping.

Therefore, in the end, Chen Muwu categorically ruled out the option of naming the new element after the country's capital. He did not want to use the name of this new element as a political gift to the newly established government in the country.

He didn't want to get dirty.

Although Chen Muwu has already thought of the names of the new elements, if he does not discover this new element at the first time, he will automatically lose the right to name it. No matter how many names he thinks of, it will be useless.

Thinking of this, Chen Muwu's heart was filled with fighting spirit.

He clapped his hands in this laboratory and said to the other four people in the five-person experimental team: "Everyone, let's work hard together. Now that the cyclotron has been completely built, we must quickly achieve an outstanding result on it. The results have made physicists around the world realize that this cyclotron, which cost a lot of money to build, is not just a silver-like pewter tip, but can really achieve many research results."

Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft had no doubts about what Chen Muwu said because they had been conducting experiments with Chen Muwu for several years in the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University.

Frederick also nodded next to him. He wanted to see Chen Muwu let himself run to Uppsala University again and come in with a natural radioactive source that can produce alpha particles, and a kind of radiation that is usually used in physics experiments. Why is the metallic element bismuth not used?

Among these people, only Irena, who was nominally closest to Chen Muwu, had the greatest doubts about Chen Muwu.

It is true that my soon-to-be brother-in-law is a genius in physics research, and he looks relaxed.

But how could he guarantee that new results would be achieved using the cyclotron?

And so are the other three people. How come they have no doubt that Chen Muwu can do this?

Chen Muwu saw that his future wife's sister was suspicious of him, so he decided to explain to the other four people in the group what they were going to do today before doing the experiment.

He cleared his throat and said:

“Everyone, everyone!

"The great Russian chemist Mendeleev, in the periodic table of elements he produced, had already predicted the existence of an iodine-like element under iodine.

"Later, the British scientist Moseley, who died on the battlefield of World War I, determined that the atomic number of this point-like element should be eighty-five.

“Ever since Mendeleev, chemists around the world have been searching for this iodine-like element.

"The basis for their search for elements is entirely based on Mr. Mendeleev's judgment that iodine-like elements are halogen elements, and halogen elements are all salt-forming elements, so everyone has been trying to find them in various Planting salts to look for traces of iodine-like element No. 1925. "I remember that the year before last, in the summer of , there was a chemist from the Royal Society named Philiende. He specifically chose a hot summer day to I went to the Dead Sea in the Middle East and wanted to look for this iodine-like element in the salt precipitated from the most famous salt lake in the world.

"But he did sufficient chemical analysis and spectroscopic analysis, but could not find any trace of this iodine-like element.

"Element No. 85 has polonium in front and radon in the back. To give an inappropriate metaphor, according to the pinch rule in calculus, this iodine-like element must exist, but people have not yet been able to detect it in nature. Just a discovery.”

This joke told by Chen Muwu made several people present couldn't help laughing.

None of them thought that a mathematical formula could be applied to chemical elements.

Chen Muwu continued: "Just because it is difficult to find in nature does not mean that it cannot be artificially produced in a laboratory.

“So I asked Frederic to go to Uppsala University and borrow the two things I needed.

“And we at Prince’s College have just developed the world’s most advanced cyclotron that can accelerate particles.

"Since I am at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University, I can use the electrostatic particle accelerator to fuse helium-3 atoms from hydrogen atoms and deuterium atoms.

"So now in Stockholm, can we use a cyclotron to fuse alpha particles and bismuth-209 together?"

Chen Muwu explained the general idea of ​​the experiment he was going to conduct next.

After hearing what Chen Muwu said, Frederick, who went to Uppsala University to borrow medicine, was shocked.

He initially thought that Chen Muwu wanted bismuth and alpha particles because bismuth was a non-radioactive element with the largest atomic number.

After it, polonium, radon, francium, radium, actinium, thorium, protactinium and uranium are all unstable radioactive elements, including a gas.

These unstable radioactive elements, which may become other elements at any time, must not be installed on the target of the cyclotron.

Otherwise, it is very likely that the experimental product will be contaminated and some impurities will be incorporated into it, and it will not be possible to properly test what the product after bombardment is.

Frederick also thought that Chen Muwu was going to bombard the bismuth element with alpha particles to try to see if he could get the kind of atomic nucleus that Cavendi had been pursuing in the laboratory from this non-radioactive metal element with the largest atomic number. Electrically neutral particles.

Unexpectedly, Chen Muwu's idea was much more radical than his. He did not want to produce electrically neutral particles, but wanted to use accelerated alpha particle bombardment to turn the bismuth element into another element with a larger atomic number.

If Chen Muwu's idea was put into the Middle Ages, it would be the alchemy that those warlocks dreamed of.

If he can really turn element 83, bismuth, into element 85, iodine, can he also turn element 26, iron, into element 79, gold? Create value?

But in fact, Frederick's idea cannot be said to be completely wrong. If he could see the nuclear reaction equation that Chen Muwu thought up in his brain, he would be able to see that behind the iodine-like element, the product of the alpha particle bombardment of the bismuth element, there are two more One or three or four new particles with zero electric charge and a relative atomic mass of one.

If Chen Muwu thought about it, he would actually only need to put an extra piece of paraffin crystal rich in hydrogen atoms behind the cyclotron target, and he could deduce from the bombarded protons that the reaction product has electrical neutrality. the existence of particles.

It's just that the protagonist feels that he can synthesize new elements if he synthesizes them. It's not the right time for the neutron to come out.

After explaining the purpose of the experiment and the possible results, the next step is the most important step, which is to conduct the experiment and turn the protagonist's idea into reality.

Except for the protagonist, the remaining four people present were all motivated after some intense encouragement.

If, as the protagonist said, they used alpha particles accelerated by a cyclotron to bombard the bismuth element and obtained a new element like iodine, then this would definitely be a highlight in the history of chemistry.

Bismuth is a relatively stable metal and will only slowly oxidize in air with high relative humidity.

Therefore, at Prince's College, we do not need to reduce the bismuth borrowed from Uppsala University. We only need to polish off an oxide layer on the surface of the sample.

Anyway, the inside of the cyclotron is in a high vacuum state, which basically does not allow the oxidation reaction of the polished bismuth metal to occur.

Having decided what the experiment was going to do, the five-person team quickly returned to its previous busy state.

Irena and Frederick went to polish bismuth metal. The protagonist, Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, removed the proton source previously installed in the middle part of the cyclotron and replaced it with Frederick's from Upp. Radioactive particle source on loan from SARA University.

The protagonist is not worried at all that the experiment will not succeed, but he is still worried about another thing.

Among the five people present, although they are currently engaged in research on discovering new chemical elements, all of them have a background in physics.

The protagonist is only worried about one thing now, and that is that even if they do produce the 85th element X through bombardment and fusion.

But how can we confirm that what we have discovered is this new element?

The middle school thinks, should we find a specialized chemist to come over and do a test for everyone?

As for sending or bringing the products generated by the experiment to the UK by mail or by real person, you can find Professor Aston in the Cavendish Laboratory, or you can find one of Teacher Rutherford's former right-hand assistants. Frederic Soddy, these are improbable things.

Because the iodine-like element No. 85 produced has the longest half-life among its various isotopes, it does not exceed ten hours.

If iodine-211 was brought back to the UK, it would probably have been transformed into bismuth-207 or lead-207 by the time it was delivered to chemists.

X→α+Bi;

Ｘ＋e→Po→α+Pb.

(End of this chapter)