Instructor Megan White

What’s in a chemical name?

“…the naming of a chemical element is influenced by national pride, professional rivalry and personal sensitivities; the picking of a single name can provoke as much back-room bickering and bargaining as the selection of an international beauty queen.” 

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

80 Countries Represented

“The elements themselves, numbers 104 through 109 on the periodic table, were created by accelerator laboratories in the United States, Germany, and Russia over the last two decades and have little significance for non-scientists. Only a few atoms of each of these elements ever existed, and none survived after its creation for more than a few seconds before decaying radioactively into atomic debris” (Browne 1997).

“Subject to confirmation by the union's members at a meeting in Geneva next August [1997], these will be the names of the six new elements: Element 104, Rutherfordium (symbol Rf); Element 105, Dubnium (symbol Db); Element 106, Seaborgium (symbol Sg); Element 107, Bohrium (symbol Bh); Element 108, Hassium (symbol Hs)” (Browne 1997).

Three issues: (1) priority of discovery, (2) the right of discoverers to suggest

names, (3) the role of the IUPAC

Pure Appl. Chem., Vol. 74, No. 5, pp. 787–791, 2002.

Any new metallic elements should be given names ending in -ium.

...Other elements recognised (or discovered) during the past three centuries were named according to various arbitrary associations of origin, physical or chemical properties, etc., and more recently to commemorate the names of some famous scientists.

...It is desirable that the names of elements in different languages differ as little as possible.

Pure Appl. Chem., Vol. 74, No. 5, pp. 787–791, 2002.

In keeping with tradition, elements are named after

• a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object);

• a mineral, or similar substance; • a place or geographical region; • a property of the element; or • a scientist.

Pure Appl. Chem., Vol. 74, No. 5, pp. 787–791, 2002.

Why are some names are more contentious than others?

Who does, and who should have the final say in approving names?

What names you might have chosen for elements 110-112, and why?

Why it might matter for everyone around the world to use a common name for the elements?