MORE than a decade since it was first spotted, element 112, the newest element in the periodic table, has arrived at the finish line, winning its chemical symbol at last.
The name "copernicium" was
suggested last year by the element's discoverers, led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. Now the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry has given its
official seal of approval - and announced that its symbol will be Cn. "It is good to have a final decision on it," says John Corish of IUPAC.
IUPAC rejected the initial suggestion of the symbol Cp, mainly to avoid confusion. Prior to 1949, Cp referred to cassiopeium, an element with the atomic number 71 that is now known as lutetium. Corish adds that Cp is also used to refer to the organic compound cyclopentadienyl, and as an abbreviation for "specific heat capacity at constant pressure".
Hofmann's team discovered element 112 in 1996, after fusing atoms of zinc and lead. But it wasn't until 2009 that IUPAC finally confirmed the element had been made - and that Hoffman's team deserved the credit. "You have to be very careful," says Corish. "People say you are slow, but it's very difficult science, so it has to be done extremely carefully."
