Is it possible to create an element

Chemical reactions change the number and shape of the electrons in an atom but leave the nucleus of the atom unchanged. The ancient alchemist dream of creating gold by simply reacting chemicals is therefore impossible. You have to use nuclear reactions to create gold. The difficulty is that nuclear reactions require a lot of energy. The nucleus of a stable atom is very tightly bound together, so it is hard to get anything permanently into or out of the nucleus.

To induce a nuclear reaction, we have to shoot high-energy particles at a nucleus. We can get such particles either from radioactive decay, from nuclear reactions in a reactor, from the acceleration of slow particles, or from a mix of these techniques.

For example, Sherr, Bainbridge, and Anderson created gold in by shooting neutrons at mercury. The neutrons were generated by a series of nuclear reactions that were kick-started by the Harvard cyclotron particle accelerator.

Usually gold is created from platinum, which has one less proton than gold, or from mercury, which has one more proton than gold. Bombarding a platinum or mercury nucleus with neutrons can knock off an neutron or add on a neutron, which through natural radioactive decay can lead to gold.

Improve this question. Pulsar Vlad Vlad Vlad Vlad 6 6 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Pulsar Pulsar Just not for long. Other than that the antimatter we know we make. So, not on earth, but in the universe. Maybe the production rate is so small and the lifetime so short that, averaged over all time from the big bang till now, there exists less than one atom in the observable universe Show 6 more comments.

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