Named after Tennessee, tennessine is a tribute to the region where a large amount of superheavy element research is conducted in the US. Moscovium is named after Moscow, where the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research is based. Both element names take their cues from geographical regions. A collaboration between the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Russia and the Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, US, elements 115 and 117 were both created in 2010. Scientists based in Russia and the US who discovered elements 115 and 117 have put forward the names moscovium (Mc) and tennessine (Ts), respectively.
Named after Japan, the element will be the first East Asian name to appear on the periodic table if ratified. The element was synthesised by Kosuke Morita’s group at RIKEN in Japan after they bombarded a bismuth target with zinc-70 nuclei in 20. Nihonium (elemental symbol Nh) is the proposed name for element-113. The criteria states an element may be named after a mythological figure or concept, geological place, scientist, elemental property, or mineral.
The groups responsible for the discovery of these new elements each put forward their proposed name and symbol after Iupac confirmed their existence in January 2016. ‘It’s an exciting day for the world,’ says Lynn Soby, Iupac’s executive director. The proposed names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson respectively, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (Iupac) has announced.