A Visual Encyclopedia of the Periodic Table

139

The Boron Group

Nihonium

Nh

113

toxic and has to be handled with care

when used. A chlorine compound of

thallium is used in scans to study a

patient’s blood circulation. Thallium

oxide also helps make glass stronger

for use in spectacles and cameras.

Nihonium was named after the Japanese word

nihon, which means Japan. A metallic element,

nihonium was first detected in 2003 by teams studying

the artificial element moscovium, which has the

atomic number of 115. They noticed that atoms

of moscovium broke apart after only a few seconds

into atoms of an element with an atomic number of

113. In 2004, Kozuka Morita and a team of scientists
     at the RIKEN Nuclear Research Centre in Japan
     isolated this element in a different way: they fused
     bismuth and zinc atoms together.

Uses

Blood injected with a

thallium compound shows

up on a patient’s heart scan.

These thin

lenses contain

strong, thallium-

infused glass.

Spectacles

Kozuka Morita (left), with a visiting official at the

RIKEN Nuclear Research Centre, Wako, Japan

Heart function scan

Until the

1970s, thallium

salts were commonly

used as ant

poison.

113 113 183

State: Solid

Discovery: 2004

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