For the first time, scientists have revealed crucial properties of the mysterious, radioactive substance promethium — nearly eight decades after the elusive rare earth element was discovered.
'Scarce and difficult to study'Promethium itself, which was discovered by ORNL scientists in 1945, has a few minor applications in atomic batteries and cancer diagnostics. But scientists have a very limited understanding of the element's chemistry, precluding more widespread uses. ORNL is the U.S.' only producer of promethium-147, an isotope of the element with a radioactive half-life of 2.6 years. Using a method developed last year, the researchers separated this isotope from nuclear reactor waste streams, creating the purest possible sample for study.
Then, the team combined this sample with a ligand — a molecule specially designed to trap metal atoms — to form a stable complex in water. The coordinating molecule, known as PyDGA, formed nine promethium-oxygen bonds, giving researchers the first-ever opportunity to analyze the bonding properties of a promethium complex."Because promethium is radioactive, once it's decaying, it's getting transmuted into the adjacent element, which is samarium," Ivanov said.
"Promethium was the last puzzle piece among those elements," Popovs said. The ligand provided a way to have a stable complex for all of the lanthanides — the same element ratios and the same kind of geometry. That allowed the team to"study the fundamental physical chemical properties of these complexes across the whole series," Popovs explained.
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