For the first time, researchers have experimentally examined the chemistry of the lanthanide element promethium. The investigation was carried out by Alex Ivanov and colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US – the same facility at which the element was first discovered almost 80 years ago.
Found on the sixth row of the periodic table, the lanthanide rare-earth metals possess an unusually diverse range of magnetic, optical and electrical properties, which are now exploited in many modern technologies. Yet despite their widespread use, researchers still know very little about the chemistry of promethium, a lanthanide with an atomic number of 61, which was first identified in 1945 by researchers on the Manhattan project.
“As the world slowly recovered from a devastating war, a group of national laboratory scientists from the closed town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, isolated an unknown radioactive element,” Ivanov describes. “This last rare-earth lanthanide was subsequently named promethium, derived from the Greek mythology hero Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven for the use of mankind.”
To read more, click here.