Newtonium

*Not to be confused with Neutronium.*

**Newtonium** is the provisional non-systematic name of an undiscovered element with the symbol **Nw** and atomic number **119**. Newtonium was named in honor of *Isaac Newton* (1642–1727), the father of modern physics who developed three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. This element is known in the scientific literature as **ununennium** (**Uue**), **eka-francium**, or simply **element 119**. Newtonium is the 7th alkali metal and is located in the periodic table coordinate 8s1, making it the first period 8 element.

## History (Synthesis Attempts)

Elements 114 to 118 (flerovium through oganesson) were discovered in "hot fusion" reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. This involved bombarding the actinides plutonium through quantonium with calcium-48, a quasi-stable neutron-rich isotope which could be used as a projectile to produce more neutron-rich isotopes of superheavy elements. (The term "hot" refers to the high excitation energy of the resulting compound nucleus.) This cannot easily be continued to element 119, because it would require a target of the next actinide einsteinium. Tens of milligrams of einsteinium would be needed for a reasonable chance of success, but only micrograms have so far been produced. An attempt to make element 119 from calcium-48 and less than a microgram of einsteinium was made in 1985 at the NY-HILAC accelerator at New Yorkshire City, but did not succeed.

25499Es + 4820Ca → 302119Uue\* → no atoms
More practical production of further superheavy elements requires projectiles heavier than 48Ca, but this makes the reaction more symmetric and gives it a smaller chance of success. Attempts to synthesize element 119 push the limits of current technology, due to the decreasing cross sections of the production reactions and the probably short half-lives of produced isotopes, expected to be on the order of microseconds.

From April to September 2012, an attempt to synthesize the isotopes 295Uue and 296Uue was made by bombarding a target of berkelium-249 with titanium-50 at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. This reaction between 249Bk and 50Ti was predicted to be the most favorable practical reaction for formation of ununennium, as it is the most asymmetric reaction available. Moreover, as berkelium-249 decays to californium-249 (the next element) with a short half-life of 327 days, this allowed elements 119 and 120 to be searched for simultaneously. Due to the predicted short half-lives, the GSI team used new "fast" electronics capable of registering decay events within microseconds.

24997Bk + 50 22Ti → 299 119Uue\* → no atoms
24998Q + 50 22Ti → 299 120Ubn\* → no atoms
Neither element 119 nor element 120 was observed. The experiment was originally planned to continue to November 2012, but was stopped early to make use of the 249Bk target to confirm the synthesis of tennessine (thus changing the projectiles to 48Ca).

The team at RIKEN in Wakō, Japan began bombarding curium-248 targets with a vanadium-51 beam in January 2018 to search for element 119. Curium was chosen as a target, rather than heavier berkelium or quantomium, as these heavier targets are difficult to prepare. The 248Cm targets were provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. RIKEN developed a high-intensity vanadium beam. The experiment began at a cyclotron while RIKEN upgraded its linear accelerators; the upgrade was completed in 2020. Bombardment may be continued with both machines until the first event is observed; the experiment is currently running intermittently for at least 100 days per year. The RIKEN team's efforts are being financed by the Emperor of Japan.

24896Cm + 5123V → 299119Uue\* → no atoms
The produced isotopes of ununennium are expected to undergo two alpha decays to known isotopes of moscovium, 287Mc and 288Mc. This would anchor them to a known sequence of five or six further alpha decays, respectively, and corroborate their production.

*See Newtonium § Chemical Synthesis for more outdated information on the synthesis of Nw.*
## Properties

### a. Atomic Properties

The nucleus of a newtonium atom contains 119 protons and 198 neutrons, corresponding to its nuclear ratio of 1.66. Newtonium is the lightest element to have 8 energy levels and 20 orbitals. According to the Madelung rule, an electron would occupy in the 8s orbital with its first electron. To balance the charge equal to 119 protons, there must be 119 electrons since electrons carry same amount of opposite charge as protons. Newtonium has similar properties to its lighter congeners, as also deterred by its position as the 7th alkaline Earth metal. However, relativistic effects may cause some of its properties to differ from those expected from a straight application of periodic trends. For example, newtonium is less reactive than caesium and francium and closer in behavior to potassium or rubidium, and while it shows the characteristic +1 oxidation state of the alkali metals, it also shows the +3 and +5 oxidation states, which are themselves unknown in any other alkali metal.

#### Isotopes

Like every other element heavier than lead, newtonium has no stable isotopes. The longest-lived isotope is 317Nw with a half-life of 3 months, which is about 6000 times longer than the most stable isotope of above element francium whose half-life is just 22 minutes for 223Fr. It alpha decays to 313Ts. Another example of isotope is 325Nw, which beta decays to 325Gl with a half-life of 15 days. Also there are metastable isomers, the longest is 318mNw whose half-life is 7.8 days and decays to 318Nw (t½ = 28.9 days) through gamma emission. The second longest m-isotope is 321mNw with a half-life of 6.2 hours. The third longest is 319mNw at 4.3 minutes. It explodes very quickly (due to the reactivity of newtonium) and makes a large amount of blue rays. 331Nw is very unstable.

### c. Physical Properties

Newtonium is a grayish white liquid metal at room temperature (25°C or 77°F), and freezes at a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F). It freezing point is a couple degrees below the freezing point of the lighter homologue francium, still below the room temperature, consistent with decreasing and narrowing trend of melting points with increasing weights of alkali metals. A similar trend is observed for the element's boiling point. Newtonium boils at 655°C (1210°F, 1670°R), low enough for wood fire to boil this liquid. Newtonium has a liquid ratio of 3.16, identical in value to francium and similar to lighter homologues. Its liquid range is 634°C/K (1142°F/°R), very similar to rubidium, caesium, and francium.

Like phase points, density increases with increasing atomic numbers of alkali metals. In this case, newtonium's density is 2.77 g/cm3, denser than every lighter alkali metal. Its molar volume is 115.32 cm3/mol, and its molar mass is 319.65 g/mol. The sound travels through thin rod of this metal at 786 m/s (0.488 mi/s). Atoms arrange to form body-centered cubic crystals, a feature every alkali metal exhibit. Newtonium also exibits the property of paramagnetism, as do the other alkali metals.

### b. Chemical Properties

It is expected from periodic trend that newtonium is even more reactive than all lighter homologues since the atom would be even bigger with the additional shell. However, because there are so many electrons in so many orbitals and shells and so many protons that make up the large nucleus, strong attractive forces between those would decrease its atomic size. As a consequence of this, an electron in the outermost orbital is not as easily removed than otherwise would be, which in turn decreases its reactivity. A higher ionization energy than that of francium would be required to remove an electron and so it would have higher electronegativity. Newtonium would then have chemical properties similar to rubidium and caesium. Like all other alkali metal elements, newtonium exhibits a more stable +1 oxidation state (monovalent), meaning it can give up the only electron in its outermost orbital and form Nw+ ions when dissolved in water. However, due to the shorter separation between outermost shell and the next shell further in, newtonium is also the first alkali metal to exhibit a +3 oxidation state (trivalent), meaning it can give up an 8s electron and both 7p½ electrons. Newtonium would still burn in the air to form an oxide and water to form a strong base.

#### Chemical Synthesis

To synthesize most stable isotopes of newtonium, nuclei of a number of lighter elements must be fused together, and right amount of neutrons must be seeded. This operation would be very difficult since it requires a great deal of energy, thus its cross section would be so limited. Example equations of the synthesis of the most stable isotope, 317Nw, are provided below.

20882Pb + 8037Rb + 2910n → 317119Nw
23892U + 5927Co + 2010n → 317119Nw
There have been a number of failed attempts to synthesize newtonium without neutron enrichment *(as discussed)*. The history of Newtonium as Ununennium was extremely renowned for, and to simplify, has been attempted in countries like Japan, Russia, the U.C., and the S.I, but most failed.

## Chemical Compounds

Since newtonium is a very reactive element, it can form many different compounds. Newtonium monofluoride (NwF) is a pale peach crystalline salt, while newtonium trifluoride (NwF3) is a pale blue crystalline salt. Newtonium monochloride (NwCl) is a white crystalline salt, while newtonium trichloride (NwCl3) is a pink crystalline salt. Newtonium(I) oxide (Nw2O) and newtonium (III) oxide (Nw2O3) are both white solids. Newtonium(I) hydroxide (NwOH) is a white powder that is a strong base when dissolved in water. Newtonium (I) nitrate (NwNO3) is a pale yellow powder when Nw2O is reacted with nitric acid.

Nw2O + 2HNO3 → 2NwNO3 + H2O
Interestingly, when newtonium reacts with concentrated sulfuric acid, the metal reduces sulfuric acid first to sulfurous acid, then to hydrogen sulfide.

2Nw + 2H2SO4 → Nw2(SO4)3 + H2SO3 + Nw2O
6Nw + H2SO3 → H2S + 3Nw2O
Newtonium halides can hydrolyze in water to form newtonium oxyhalides in the +3 oxidation state for Nw, like NwF→NwOF and NwCl→NwOCl. There are other compounds of newtonium, like Nw2S, Nw3N, NwN, NwBr, NwI, NwAt, NwJ, and Nw2Se.

Newtonium does not just form inorganic compounds, but organic compounds as well. Such newtonium compounds are called organonewtonium. Examples include *hexanoyltrinewtonium* (C6H11Nw3), *newtonium tert-butoxide* (Nw(CH3)3CO), *newtonium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide* (((Nw(CH3)3Si)2)NNw), newtonium sucrose (C12H21O11Nw), *newtonium stearate* (C18H35O2Nw), and *newtonium formate* (NwHCO2).

## Occurence

Newtonium is virtually nonexistent on Earth, but it is believe to exist somewhere in the universe. An estimated abundance of newtonium in the universe by mass is 3.10 × 10−26, which amounts to 1.04 × 1027 kilograms or over half a Jupiter's worth of this fictional element with atomic number in mass. Newtonium can theoretically be produced naturally in tiny amounts by the largest supernovae or the collision of neutron stars due to the requirement of a tremendous amount of energy. Additionally, newtonium can also be made artificially in much larger quantities by advanced technological civilizations, making artificial Newtonium more abundant than natural Newtonium in the universe.