Abstract
Curium and promethium share similar chemical and physical properties thereby complicating their separation. Co-located processing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory results in curium contamination of the fission product stream containing promethium. To gain insight into the difficulty of this separation, the fundamental properties of these elements are experimentally and computationally probed in a 2,2’:6’,2”-terpyridine crystal system. Analysis of the isostructural compounds via single crystal X-ray diffraction and quantum theory of atoms in molecules reveals that bonding between promethium and curium is quite similar in this particular structure type. The small differences in the analysis of these two elements in this isostructural series sheds light on the difficulty required to separate the elements from each other. More so, this study develops the fundamental chemistries of two rare elements in the solid state and experimentally portrays the often-omitted position of promethium within the lanthanide series.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 3220 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2025 |
Funding
This research is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy Isotope Program, managed by the Office of Isotope R&D and Production (FDW). The authors also acknowledge the support of startup funds and Michigan State University (ANG). The authors would like to acknowledge the staff of the REDC processing facility, the promethium production campaign team, and the radiological protection program at ORNL for their assistance in handling, monitoring, and preparation of samples. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Nikki Thiele for use of laboratory resources in preparing the radioactive samples.