KBC 14: Which of these elements is named after the Japanese word for Japan?

KBC 14: Which of these elements is named after the Japanese word for Japan?

Answer: Nihonium

What distinguishes Nihonium (Nh) – named after the country Japan (nihon) – is not so much its unusual name as it is the fact that it was discovered by an Asian researcher.

Nihonium is a highly radioactive, superheavy, synthetic element on which Morita’s research team has been working since 2003.

In July 2004, the group synthesised element 113 for the first time, and repeated the feat in April 2005 and August 2012. They used a heavy ion linear accelerator from the RIKEN National Research Institute, which is a particle accelerator that increases the kinetic energy of charged ions to produce reactions.

Kosuke Morita submitted his team’s proposed name for element 113 to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry in December 2015. It was officially approved after a public review from June to November of 2016.