A team of scientists was recently able to observe how promethium forms chemical bonds when placed in an aqueous solution.
Proving a hypothesis can be exciting, but witnessing something that has never been seen before elevates that discovery into an unforgettable experience. A team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory was recently able to share this rare feeling as they observed how the even rarer element promethium forms chemical bonds when placed in an aqueous solution.
"We had around 40 or 50% of the entire stock of purified promethium on the planet at the beamline to study," remarked Bruce Ravel, lead beamline scientist at BMM and co-author of this research."A couple of weeks later, the promethium sample was no longer usable, mostly due to the water in the solution evaporating. Of course, the research was interesting, but the whole process to make it happen was interesting, too.
In this solution, the promethium ion formed bonds with nine neighboring oxygen atoms. After analyzing and measuring the complex, the team was able to plug this result into the remaining lanthanide series, observing that it fit in the pattern of contraction that was theorized.
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