Nihonium was among the four atomic elements the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry formally endorsed Monday, along with Moscovium for the element 115, Tennessine for 117 and Oganesson for 118 that were named based on proposals by U.S. and Russian teams.
The name, coined by a team of researchers at the institute, combines "Nihon", meaning Japan, with a general suffix for substances, and has the atomic symbol "Nh."
Kosuke Morita, a Kyushu University professor who led the team, welcomed the decision by the U.S.-based body.
"It is an honor that the name of an element that originated in Japan and was first discovered in Asia will fill a slot in the periodic table, an intellectual legacy for humankind that will be passed down to future generations," Morita said in a statement.
The artificially synthesized element has 113 protons in its nucleus. Morita's group created the element by colliding zinc ions with bismuth, which have 30 protons and 83 protons, respectively.
The team secured the naming rights last December after successfully creating the element three times in 2004, 2005 and 2012. A U.S.-Russian team had claimed to have discovered the element earlier than the Riken team, but the IUPAC concluded the Riken team had discovered it.
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