Nuclear chemistry research obtains an impulse of efficiency with the ‘serial approach’

Heavy actinids (elements at the bottom of the periodic table, after plutonium) are radioactive, rare and chemically complex, which makes them notoriously difficult to study. Most of the studies carried out in these elements have traditionally carried out a time of a moment or extrapolated of less toxic and non -radioactive substitutes, such as lantanids, which are safer to work. As such, it is known relatively little about the chemical properties of heavy actinids.

The researchers of the National Lowrence Livermore (LLNL) laboratory are breaking the barriers of this field with a “simplified and efficient” serial approach “for the synthesis and analysis of heavy actinurus compounds.

A new study published in it Journal of the American Chemical Society It reveals that America and Curium actinides have truly unique chemical properties, which depart from the historical consensus that some actinids and lanthanides exhibit the same chemistry.

According to the authors, the scientists of LLNL Ian Colliard and Gauthier deblonde, this is probably the largest crystallographic and spectroscopic data set ever published in compounds of America and Curio.

“Our approach allows the synthesis, crystallization and the detailed structural and spectroscopic analysis of compounds containing America and Curio, two of the rarest and challenging elements to study,” said Colliard. “Thanks to the resources in Livermore, we can now make serial chemistry in elements such as these, which simply was not possible before.”

Deblonde and Colliard synthesized and characterized Coordination Complexes of America and Curio, along with their respective analogues of Lantanids, Neodimio and Europio.

Here, a coordination complex refers to a type of chemical compound where Americio or Curium atoms are surrounded by polyaxomethalate ligands (Poms): dense metal and oxygen clusters and fingers. These ligands are wrapped around the atoms of America or Curio, creating a stable complex that can be studied in detail.

Creating a POM complex is the first step to discover a new compound. For their study, the researchers investigated the luminescence properties of 25 curio complexes -Pom in aqueous solutions, which represent a significant experimental data set for the field. Of these 25 complexes, seven curio compounds were successfully isolated as structurally individual and characterized crystals, marking contributions other than the study of actin coordination chemistry.

Compared to previous studies that required between 500 and 5,000 micrograms of a rare heavy element to produce a single compound, the use of POM allowed researchers to drastically reduce the amount required to only 1-10 micrograms per reaction. In the present study, this innovation allowed the efficient synthesis of American and Curium, but could also be applied to many other heavy elements in future research.

With the recently published data set, approximately 45% of Curium compounds that have been structurally characterized to date are the result of the research carried out in LLNL.

“Now, we can get more data while we use much less research isotopes produced by the energy department. This means that we can detect real chemical trends in a series of compounds, not only extrapolated from one -compound experiments,” said Deblonde. “We can also train students and the next generation of radiochemists in elements that have traditionally been out of the limits.”

Study and characterize the structural, vibratory and optical properties of the compounds, Colliard and deblonde used a combination of analytical techniques. The solid state spectroscopy revealed vibratory interactions rarely observed between the atoms in curio complexes, indicating the potential of new emissive pathways (light emitters).

These ways are essential to advance the understanding of luminescence phenomena and the properties of electrons that orbit heavy elements near the speed of light.

These findings challenge the assumption of the similarity of actinid -Lantanido, revealing that although they share some traits, actinids such as America and the curio show unique chemical behaviors that cannot be completely predicted when studying the Lantanids. The different chemical and physical properties of actinids were evident in the new series of compounds.

Next, the researchers are eager to apply their “series approach” to other rare elements found in nuclear applications, further exploring the unique properties of the elements on the edge of the periodic table.