R. David Britt

ALT Seminar flyer featuring a headshot of Prof. van der Donk, a picture of the A. I. Scott medal, and a schedule of events for Friday and Saturday,

ALT Abstract: Elements beyond plutonium are testbeds for probing how relativistic effects alter electronic structure and hence molecular structure, physical properties, and reactivity. Americium, curium, berkelium, californium, and einsteinium are the final elements for which bulk properties such as X-ray diffraction, optical spectroscopy, and magnetism can be measured, albeit with great difficulty. This lecture focuses on pushing the boundaries of chemistry deeper into the periodic table through the application of extreme conditions to complexes and materials containing transplutonium elements. These measurements have proven to be worth the effort and have revealed evidence for a break in the fundamental properties of actinide elements that starts in the actinide series at californium and strengthens through einsteinium, fermium, and mendelevium. The evaluation of these experimental results with relativistic quantum mechanical theory has helped to explain these unusual observations.