Synthesis of new nuclides in China

Synthesizing new nuclides/isotopes and new elements, expanding the chart of nuclides and the periodic table of elements, and exploring the limit of the existence of nuclides are frontier research fields in nuclear physics. The synthesis of new nuclides can not only reveal the mystery of nuclear structure, nuclear decay and fundamental interactions between nucleons, but also help to explore the mechanism of nucleosynthesis processes and energy sources in nuclear astrophysics. Moreover, understanding the properties of isotopes can also expand their practical applications. Compared with other developed countries around the world, research on new nuclides only started in the 1990s in China, but with the strong support of the government and continuous endeavors of researchers, 41 new isotopes have been successfully synthesized so far, raising China’s ranking to the 11th place in the world. As research advances, it is becoming more and more challenging to produce, separate and identify new isotopes. This paper reviews the current status and specific methods employed in this area of research in China, summarizes the challenges and the efforts to solve the problems in the synthesis of new isotopes, and briefly describes the experimental plans for synthesizing new elements in China.