The organic ligand 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) forms an Es(III) coordination complex, enabling structural and spectroscopic studies
Discovered in the debris after the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb in 1952, einsteinium is a highly radioactive actinide. As it doesn’t occur on Earth naturally, little is known about its chemistry beyond the fact that it forms a few halide and oxide salts. Making more than just trace amounts of it means bombarding lighter elements with neutrons for a prolonged period of time – a process that can only be done at one place in the world, the high flux isotope reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, US.
Mysterious Element Einsteinium Measured by Scientists For The First Time
3 FEBRUARY 2021
Dragons lurk at the edges of the map of known elements – atomic giants so delicate, and so scarce, they defy easy study.
One such behemoth has finally given up at least some of its secrets, with chemists managing to gather just enough einsteinium to flesh out important details on the mysterious element s chemistry and ability to form bonds.
For the better part of 70 years, isotopes of einsteinium have proven frustratingly difficult to study. Either they re way too hard to make, or they have a half-life of less than a year, and what precious little is created begins to fall apart like a sandcastle at high tide.
Scientists measure bond distance in rare, radioactive element einsteinium
By (0)
Because einsteinium has such a short half-life, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley had to work fast when conducting experiments with element 99. Photo by Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab
Feb. 3 (UPI) Scientists have, for the first time, measured the bond distance of einsteinium, one of the most radioactive and difficult to make elements on the periodic table.
Researchers detailed rare experiments on the element, which carries the atomic number 99, in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Advertisement
With little known about the chemical properties of einsteinium, bond distance the average distance between the nuclei of two bonded atoms in a molecule is key to understanding how an element will interact with other atoms and molecules.
E-Mail
IMAGE: Berkeley Lab scientists Leticia Arnedo-Sanchez (from left), Katherine Shield, Korey Carter, and Jennifer Wacker had to take precautions against radioactivity as well as coronavirus to conduct experiments with the rare. view more
Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab
Since element 99 - einsteinium - was discovered in 1952 at the Department of Energy s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) from the debris of the first hydrogen bomb, scientists have performed very few experiments with it because it is so hard to create and is exceptionally radioactive. A team of Berkeley Lab chemists has overcome these obstacles to report the first study characterizing some of its properties, opening the door to a better understanding of the remaining transuranic elements of the actinide series.
Date Time
Discoveries at Edge of Periodic Table: First Ever Measurements of Einsteinium
Berkeley Lab scientists Leticia Arnedo-Sanchez (from left), Katherine Shield, Korey Carter, and Jennifer Wacker had to take precautions against radioactivity as well as coronavirus to conduct experiments with the rare element, einsteinium. (Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab)
Since element 99 – einsteinium – was discovered in 1952 at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) from the debris of the first hydrogen bomb, scientists have performed very few experiments with it because it is so hard to create and is exceptionally radioactive. A team of Berkeley Lab chemists has overcome these obstacles to report the first study characterizing some of its properties, opening the door to a better understanding of the remaining transuranic elements of the actinide series.