Oganesson (Og) is the heaviest chemical element in the periodic table, but its properties have proven difficult to measure since its first synthesis in 2002. Now an advanced computer simulation has filled in some of the gaps, and it turns out that the element is even stranger than many expected.
At the atomic level, oganesson behaves significantly differently than lighter elements in several key ways – and this could provide fundamental information on how these superheavy elements work. Simulations by an international team of scientists show that electrons, protons and neutrons do not follow the same rules as the other noble gases with which this element is grouped, which could have a big impact on how we understand this section of the periodic table. Electronic structures of xenon (top), radon (middle), and oganesson (bottom).
“Questions about superheavy systems are at the forefront of nuclear and atomic physics and chemical research.” In the lighter elements of the same family of noble gases as oganesson, according to the Bohr model of the atom, electrons occupy specific orbits or positions around the nucleus, forming shell-like groups around the center. Calculations known as fermion location functions are used to determine where these electron shells are, but with such high electrostatic forces produced by the oganesson atom, the principles of special relativity come into play. With this in mind, the researchers used adapted fermion location functions called electron location functions to calculate where the electrons would be in the oganesson.
In other words, at the most basic level, it is not at all like other noble gases such as xenon or neon. scientists, Peter Schwerdtfeger from Massey University in New Zealand. “In our calculations, however, we predict that oganesson more or less loses its shell structure and becomes an electron streak.” The same streak, or special gaseous state, also applies to neutrons inside a superheavy nucleus, according to the researchers’ calculations, although protons have been shown to retain some type of shell. We’re talking some deep quantum physics here, but all that means is that oganesson doesn’t seem to be like the other elements it’s grouped with.
The special droplet formation of its electrons may mean that it is much more chemically reactive than other noble gases, for example.
The element is too difficult to produce and lasts so short that we can’t really study it in the usual way. But now that we have these predictions about the structure and properties of element 118, scientists can conduct experiments to try to verify these hypotheses.
This is the next stage of research. In the following, these insights may even help us devise a way to produce an oganesson atom that takes more than a millisecond. tools we currently have, and have certainly yielded some interesting discoveries,” says Schwerdtfeger. The research was published in Physical Review Letters.