On the suitability of lanthanides as actinide analogs

Conference · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2008

OSTI ID:21091536

Raymond, Kenneth; Szigethy, Geza ^[1]

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1. Chemistry Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1460 (United States)

With the current level of actinide materials used in civilian power generation and the need for safe and efficient methods for the chemical separation of these species from their daughter products and for long-term storage requirements, a detailed understanding of actinide chemistry is of great importance. Due to the unique bonding properties of the f-elements, the lanthanides are commonly used as structural and chemical models for the actinides, but differences in the bonding between these 4f and 5f elements has become a question of immediate applicability to separations technology. This brief overview of actinide coordination chemistry in the Raymond group at UC Berkeley/LBNL examines the validity of using lanthanide analogs as structural models for the actinides, with particular attention paid to single crystal X-ray diffraction structures. Although lanthanides are commonly accepted as reasonable analogs for the actinides, these comparisons suggest the careful study of actinide materials independent of their lanthanide analogs to be of utmost importance to present and future efforts in nuclear industries. (authors)

• Research Organization: Materials Research Society, 506 Keystone Drive, Warrendale, PA, 15086-7573 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21091536
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
ACTINIDES
CHEMICAL BONDS
DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
MONOCRYSTALS
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
RARE EARTHS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STRUCTURAL MODELS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION