Nihonium | Definition & Facts - Encyclopedia Britannica

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External Websites

• Chemicool - Nihonium Element Facts
• Royal Society of Chemistry - Periodic Table - Nihonium
• Frontiers - Frontiers in Chemistry - First Study on Nihonium (Nh, Element 113) Chemistry at TASCA
• National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubChem - Nihonium

Ask the Chatbot a Question Also known as: Nh, Uut, eka-thallium, element 113, ununtrium Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Dec. 21, 2025 •History Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask the Chatbot

nihonium (Nh), artificially produced transuranium element of atomic number 113. In 2004 scientists at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science in Saitama, Japan announced the production of one atom of element 113, which was formed when bismuth-209 was fused with zinc-70. Extremely radioactive, the atom decayed through emission of alpha particles (helium nuclei) to dubnium-262 in about 2.5 seconds. Its chemical properties may be similar to those of thallium. The element has six isotopes with known and confirmed half-lives, the longest-lived of which is nihonium-286 with a half-life of 19.6 seconds; most of these radioactive isotopes were not directly synthesized but occured as decay products. In January 2016 the discovery of element 113 was recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). The discoverers named it nihonium after the Japanese word for Japan. The name nihonium was approved by IUPAC in November 2016.

Also called: element 113 or ununtrium (Show more) Related Topics: chemical element boron group element transactinoid element (Show more) See all related content Element Properties

atomic number	113
atomic weight	284
electron configuration	[Rn]5f146d107s27p1

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Rick Livingston.