Introduction
Man-made or artificial elements are those that do not occur naturally on Earth. Instead, these elements are created by humans for various purposes. They can be as important as natural ones depending on their use. Additionally, humans can determine a need for an element that is either scarce or does not occur naturally. Despite the difficulties in creating synthetic elements, it is usually the only way to avail much-needed elements for human use.
Man-Made Elements Creation: Why and How
Man-made elements are created for two main reasons that involve benefiting humans: research and experimentation. Scientific research involving elements entails making discoveries that could benefit humans. For example, if new elements have improved properties that facilitate specific applications, researchers will be interested in creating such an element. Experiments involve trying and testing new elements for specified applications.
For example, Technetium is used in medicine, often in medical tests using radioactive elements. Plutonium is primarily considered an artificial element despite trace elements found under certain geologic circumstances. This element is used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. However, most artificial elements have no clearly defined uses and are not commercially feasible (Subramanian, 2019). Therefore, these elements are created for research and experimentation involving new applications.
Creating new elements is difficult because it involves a lot of time and money. Since the last new element was announced at Berkeley in 1974, other discoveries have been made in Germany, Russia, and Japan (Subramanian, 2019). Berkeley is not even trying to catch up with these countries because new elements, often called superheavies, require millions of dollars. Such expenses cannot be recouped because these elements are not stable enough to be commercially viable. Another reason is that the equipment used to create new elements is expensive and not readily available to many scientists. Therefore, creating new elements is only possible when enough funds and equipment are available.
Artificial elements are made by replicating the processes through which the natural elements were formed. All elements started their life as stars, where the lightest elements are hydrogen, helium, and lithium, which were formed shortly after the Big Bang. At this stage, the universe was cool enough to allow neutrons, protons, and electrons to combine without tearing apart. Further cooling caused stars to form, and a superhot fusion that powered the stars took the first three elements and turned them into heavier ones (Subramanian, 2019).
Similarly, humans use similar processes by combining elements to form heavier ones. In other words, scientists smash atoms together in particle accelerators. For example, scientists discovered that allowing fast neutrons to collide with uranium isotopes in a nuclear reactor created a new element called Plutonium. Other new elements made by humans follow similar principles, which involve colliding elements to create new ones with higher molecular numbers and weight.
Artificial vs. Natural Elements
The most apparent difference between artificial and natural elements is that natural elements occur naturally in the universe, while man-made ones do not. Man-made elements can only be produced in the lab. Another difference between the two is that natural elements are more stable, which allows them to exist.
However, artificial elements are unstable and often radioactive due to the processes involved in creating them. As explained earlier, the procedure for creating new elements is superhot fusion or high-speed collision of elements, where elements are smashed (Subramanian, 2019). In other words, lighter elements combine to make heavier ones.
As a result, most man-made elements can decay in a fraction of a second after their creation. Natural elements take longer to decay, while some are stable enough not to undergo decay. In some cases, natural elements could take millions of years to decay, making them more commercially accessible.
Artificially Creating Naturally Occurring Elements
Current scientific evidence suggests that humans can create new elements using the naturally occurring ones. However, very little is known regarding the possibility of scientists re-creating naturally occurring elements when such elements are scarce. Today, the primary focus is on rare earth elements, where scientists attempt to discover the process of their formation to replicate them.
The rationale for this approach is that due to rarity, extracting such elements from the Earth is expensive and time-consuming, making it commercially infeasible (Subramanian, 2019). Since man-made elements are unstable, creating natural elements may not be possible if they become scarce. However, it can be argued that once scientists discover how to address the problem of stability, then rare natural elements can be created in the lab.
Conclusion
Some of the elements of the periodic table are man-made, while the majority occur naturally on Earth and in the universe. Artificial elements are often created to facilitate research and scientific experiments, especially where natural elements cannot be used. Examples include Plutonium, which is used in nuclear reactors and weapons. However, such elements are often challenging due to costs and the fact that most are too unstable to be commercially viable.
Reference
Subramanian, S. (2019). Making new elements doesn’t pay. Just ask this Berkeley scientist. Bloomberg. Web.