Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

How do chemists discover new elements?

Hello there!

That's a great question and there are as many answers to that question as elements (ok maybe a few less )

Are you looking for a science fair project? Discovering a new element may be a little too involved for your science fair project.
This link contains many Chemistry related project ideas you could look through. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... em&d=4,5,6

Here is a great interactive link that discusses some of the discoveries of new elements: http://www.rsc.org/Education/Teachers/R ... /index.htm

This wikipedia article lists the timeline of chemical element discoveries (it is really interesting!!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_ ... iscoveries

I hope this helps to answer your question!

Hello KhaledE!

Just like ajcourtney said, this is a very broad and open-ended question. Chemists discover new elements in a variety of ways from experimenting with chemical reactions to even discovering them accidentally. Krypton and Neon, for example, was discovered by Sir William Ramsay by evaporating liquid air (http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele036.html | http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele010.html). Phosphorus was discovered by Hennig Brand in 1669 almost completely by accident (http://www.chemicool.com/elements/phosphorus.html). Spectroscopy (the science of investigating and measuring matter as it interacts or emits electromagnetic radiation) was another way many of the elements - such as helium, cesium, and gallium - were discovered. In modern chemistry, most new elements are discovered through more complex processes with nuclear reactions and even particle accelerators (http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementfa ... lement.htm).

For more information about elemental discoveries, try this website: http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/

The above information was found by a Google search. Try one of your own and let us know what you find!

Good luck! Feel free to write back with any more questions.

Thank you Ajcourtney & Stephaniebie