Transplutonium elements are a group of metals that lie at the edge of the periodic table. As a result, the patterns and trends used to predict the physics and chemistry for other metals are less applicable to these heavy elements. Furthermore, understanding the properties of transplutonium elements has been restricted by their radioactivity and scarcity. This is especially true for einsteinium, the heaviest element on the periodic table that can currently be generated in quantities sufficient to enable macroscale studies. Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory overcame these challenges by working with small quantities of einsteinium-254 to characterize its complex compound in solution and as a solid.

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Source: SCI News