Systematic element name

From Exampleproblems

In chemistry, heavy transuranic elements receive a permanent trivial name and symbol only after their discovery has been confirmed. This has been a protracted and highly political process in some cases (see element naming controversy). In order to discuss newly discovered and as-yet undiscovered elements without ambiguity, the IUPAC assigns a temporary systematic name and symbol to such elements. The origin of this idea came from the successful development of regular rules for the naming of organic compounds containing carbon.

1 The IUPAC rules
2 Examples
3 Trivia
4 External links

The IUPAC rules

digit	root	symbol
0	nil	n
1	un	u
2	b(i)	b
3	tr(i)	t
4	quad	q
5	pent	p
6	hex	h
7	sept	s
8	oct	o
9	en(n)	e

The temporary names are derived systematically from the element's atomic number. Each digit is translated to a 'numerical root', according to the table. The roots are concatenated, and the name is completed with the ending -ium. Some of the roots are Latin and others are Greek; the reason is to avoid duplicated letters. Some extra rules are designed to prevent funny-looking names.

If bi or tri is followed by the ending ium, one of the two i's is omitted.
If enn is followed by nil, one of the three n's is omitted.

The systematic symbol is formed by taking the first letter of each root, converting the first to a capital.

All elements up to and including atomic number 111 have received permanent trivial names and symbols, so the use of systematic names and symbols is recommended only for elements 112 and above. Therefore in practice, systematic names are just those with 3-letter symbols.

Examples

Element 115:
Element 123:
Element 208:
Element 970:

un + un + pent + ium =
un + bi + tri + ium =
bi + nil + oct + ium =
enn + sept + nil + ium =

ununpentium (Uup)
unbitrium (Ubt)
biniloctium (Bno)
ennseptnilium (Esn)

Note: These examples show conjectured elements. As of 2005, ununquadium, element 114, is the highest confirmed element known, with elements 115 (ununpentium), 116 (ununhexium) and 118 (ununoctium) awaiting confirmation.

Trivia

There is one element whose systematic name is very similar to its permanent trivial name (the symbols are identical). That is element 8: "octium" (O), more commonly known as oxygen (O). If systematic names require three letters, this would be "Nno" (nilniloctium). However, leading zeroes are not written when writing eight (008), so one might also argue against writing leading nils.

If one were to somehow allow the definition of an element without protons, that hypothetical 'element zero' could be systematically named nilium. However the systematic symbol (N), even though similar to the symbol for a neutron (n), conflicts with nitrogen. Most prefer the trivial name neutronium. If the systematic names require three letters, then this would be "Nnn" (nilnilnilium). One alternative is to state that nil (n) is not written in leading positions (as with 'octium') and is never capitalized. That makes the symbol for nilium (n) exactly that of the neutron (n).

There are 702 possible combinations of letters given single letter and double letter naming used in official element names, less than the 1000 possible names using the triple letter systematic element naming scheme.