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Conceptual art shows the rare earth element promethium in a vial surrounded by an organic ligand. ORNL scientists have discovered hidden features of promethium, opening a pathway for research into other lanthanide elements. Credit: Jacquelyn DeMink, art; Thomas Dyke, photography; ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Promethium was discovered in 1945 at Clinton Laboratories, now the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and continues to be produced at ORNL in minute quantities. Some of its properties have remained elusive despite the rare earth element’s use in medical studies and long-lived nuclear batteries. It is named after the mythological Titan who delivered fire to humans and whose name symbolizes human striving.
“There are thousands of publications on lanthanides’ chemistry without promethium. That was a glaring gap for all of science,” said ORNL’s Santa Jansone-Popova, who co-led the study. “Scientists have to assume most of its properties. Now we can actually measure some of them.” Promethium is very rare; only about a pound occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust at any given time. Unlike other rare earth elements, only minute quantities of synthetic promethium are available because it has no stable isotopes.
Notably, the team provided the first demonstration of a feature of lanthanide contraction in solution for the whole lanthanide series, including promethium, atomic number 61. Lanthanide contraction is a phenomenon in which elements with atomic numbers between 57 and 71 are smaller than expected. As the atomic numbers of these lanthanides increase, the radii of their ions decrease.
The research team used several premier DOE facilities in the project. At ORNL, promethium was synthesized at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science user facility, and purified at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, a multipurpose radiochemical processing and research facility.
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