“Only a few facilities around the world can protect both the compound and the worker while managing the combined hazards of a highly radioactive material that reacts vigorously with the oxygen and moisture in air,” explained Polly Arnold, a co-corresponding author and director of Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division.
The research team overcame these obstacles by utilizing custom-designed gloveboxes, enabling air-free syntheses with highly radioactive isotopes.
“Then, with just 0.3 milligram of berkelium-249, the researchers conducted single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments,” added the team in a press release.