How was nihonium produced?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

A color-coded periodic table of the elements displays each element's symbol and atomic number, with categories such as alkali metals, noble gases, halogens, transition metals, and actinoid elements distinguished by different background colors. — boron group element Modern version of the periodic table of the elements (printable).

Nihonium (Nh) is an artificially produced transuranium element with the atomic number 113. It has only been synthesized as individual atoms through the use of particle accelerators.12

The first successful production of the element was announced in 2004 by scientists at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science in Saitama, Japan. This was achieved by fusing bismuth-209 with zinc-70. The resulting atom was extremely radioactive and decayed into dubnium-262 via the emission of alpha particles in approximately 2.5 seconds.1