Crucial for addressing nuclear waste issues
Interestingly, an unexpected finding emerged from electronic structure calculations performed by Jochen Autschbach at the University of Buffalo.
These calculations revealed that the berkelium atom in berkelocene exhibits a tetravalent oxidation state (+4), stabilized by the berkelium-carbon bonds. This contradicts traditional periodic table expectations, which suggested berkelium would behave more like lanthanide terbium.
“Traditional understanding of the periodic table suggests that berkelium would behave like the lanthanide terbium,” highlighted Minasian.
“But the berkelium ion is much happier in the +4 oxidation state than the other f-block ions we expected it to be most like,” asserted Arnold.