| AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces Division | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session BI+AC+AS+HC+NS+SS+TF-WeA |
| Session: | Current and Future Stars of the AVS Symposium II |
| Presenter: | Rebecca Abergel, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of California, Berkeley |
| Authors: | R.J. Abergel, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of California, Berkeley G. Deblonde, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory A. Mueller, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory P. Ercius, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory A.M. Minor, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of California, Berkeley C.H. Booth, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory W.A. de Jong, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory R. Strong, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Structural characterization of actinide elements from actinium to einsteinium can be a challenging task due to the high radioactivity and limited availability of some of the isotopes of interest. However, significant work is needed to address a certain lack of understanding of the fundamental bonding interactions between those metal centers and selective ligands. Such understanding presents a rich set of scientific challenges and is critical to a number of applied problems including the development of new separation strategies for the nuclear fuel cycle, the need for decontamination after a nuclear accident or the use of radio-isotopes for new cancer treatments. Our studies utilize luminescence sensitization, UV-Visible, X-ray absorption, and X-ray diffraction spectroscopic techniques as well as transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy to investigate specific heavy actinide coordination features. Using simple inorganic complexes but also strong hard oxygen-donor ligands as well as more elaborate higher molecular weight protein assemblies allows the differentiation of heavy actinide species even when limited to minute amounts of materials. Innovative structural characterization approaches based on X-ray absorption, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy that were applied to series of isostructural systems and used to derive coordination trends in the later 5f-element sequence will be discussed.