tennessiin

Tennessine is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Ts and atomic number 117. It is a member of the halogen group on the periodic table, which includes fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. Tennessine was first synthesized in 2010 by a Russian-American collaboration of scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, USA. The discovery was officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 2016.

The element was named after the state of Tennessee in the United States, honoring the contributions of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee to the discovery of superheavy elements. The name "tennessine" is derived from "Tennessee" and the suffix "-ine," which is used for halogens like chlorine and bromine. The symbol "Ts" was chosen to reflect the initial letters of the state's name.

Tennessine is highly radioactive and has not been observed in nature. It is produced artificially through nuclear fusion reactions, typically by bombarding berkelium-249 targets with calcium-48 ions. Due to its extremely short half-life—on the order of milliseconds—the chemical properties of tennessine have not been extensively studied. Predictions based on theoretical models suggest it may exhibit properties similar to other halogens, such as forming salts with alkali metals.

Like other superheavy elements, tennessine is expected to be unstable and decay rapidly. Its most stable known isotope, tennessine-294, has a half-life of approximately 78 milliseconds. Research into tennessine and other superheavy elements continues to advance understanding of nuclear structure and the limits of the periodic table.