Ununpentium is historically known as eka-bismuth. Ununpentium is a temporary IUPAC systematic element name derived from the digits 115.
Eka -bismuth was the name assigned by Dmitri Mendelev to the then unknown element with atomic number 115. Eka-, dvi- and tri- derive from the Sanskrit words for one, two, and three, and Mendelev used these for unknown elements according to whether the predicted element was one, two, or three places down from the known element in his table with similar chemical properties. Eka-bismuth was thus predicted to be one position down from Bismuth with Atomic Number 83 in his table. His predicted Eka-aluminium became Gallium and Eka-silicon became Germanium. His original table was made in 1869 along with his initial predictions.
Photo ALAMY (via The Telegraph)
The first reported synthesis of this heavy element was in 2004 by a team composed of Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, and American scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It exists for less than a second and is highly radioactive. About 25 atoms of “Ununpentium” were synthesised at that time. Now it seems the synthesis of the element has been independently confirmed though it still has to be ratified.
Expected electron configuration of “Ununpentium” – Wikipedia
An international team at the GSI research facility in Germany have confirmed the existence of a new element with atomic number 115, verifying earlier measurements performed by research groups in Russia.
By bombarding a thin film of americium with calcium ions, the research team was able to measure photons in connection with the new element’s alpha decay. Certain energies of the photons agreed with the expected energies for X-ray radiation, which is a ‘fingerprint’ of a given element.
The new super-heavy element has yet to be named. A committee comprising members of the international unions of pure and applied physics and chemistry will review the new findings to decide whether to recommend further experiments before the discovery of the new element is acknowledged.
The new super-heavy element has yet to be named. A committee comprising members of the international unions of pure and applied physics and chemistry will review the new findings to decide whether to recommend further experiments before the discovery of the new element is acknowledged.
The k2p blog 