Chemistry of the heaviest elements--one atom at a time
In keeping with the goal of the Viewpoint series of the Journal of Chemical Education, this article gives a 75-year perspective of the chemistry of the heaviest elements, including a 50-year retrospective view of past developments, a summary of current research achievements and applications, and some predictions about exciting, new developments that might be envisioned within the next 25 years. A historical perspective of the importance of chemical separations in the discoveries of the transuranium elements from neptunium (Z=93) through mendelevium (Z=101) is given. The development of techniques for studying the chemical properties of mendelevium and still heavier elements on the basis of measuring the radioactive decay of a single atom (''atom-at-a-time'' chemistry) and combining the results of many separate experiments is reviewed. The influence of relativistic effects (expected to increase as Z{sup 2}) on chemical properties is discussed. The results from recent atom-at-a-time studies of the chemistry of the heaviest elements through seaborgium (Z=106) are summarized and show that their properties cannot be readily predicted based on simple extrapolation from the properties of their lighter homologues in the periodic table. The prospects for extending chemical studies to still heavier elements than seaborgium are considered and appear promising.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director, Office of Science. Office of High Energy andNuclear Physics. Division of Nuclear Physics
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 860292
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-46364; R&D Project: 462201; TRN: US0504888
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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