Reduction of mendelevium (Md) with electrochemistry

Toyoshima, Atsushi; Tsukada, Kazuaki  ; Asai, Masato  ; Sato, Tetsuya   ; Li, Z.; Sato, Nozomi; Kikuchi, Takahiro; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro  ; Nagame, Yuichiro ; Oe, Kazuhiro*; Shinohara, Atsushi*; Kasamatsu, Yoshitaka*; Haba, Hiromitsu*; Even, J.*

Reduction of mendelevium (Md) was studied by an electrochemical method on a single atom scale. Mendelevium-255 produced in the Cm(B,4n) reaction at the JAEA tandem accelerator was transported to a chemistry laboratory by a gas-jet method. The Md isotope was then dissolved with 0.1 M HCl and fed into a working electrode modified with cation-exchange resin of a flow electrolytic column apparatus. The elution behavior on the electrode was examined as a function of the applied potential. It was found that trivalent ion of Md is reduced to the divalent state at the potentials below -0.4 V vs. an Ag/AgCl reference electrode.