Chemistry of the heaviest actinides and early transactinides; Experimental achievements and perspectives

Nagame, Yuichiro 

Chemical characterization of the heaviest elements at the farthest reach of the Periodic Table is a challenging and fascinating subject not only in nuclear and radiochemistry but also chemistry as a whole. One of the most important and interesting aspects here is to clarify basic chemical properties of these newly synthesized elements as well as to elucidate the influence of relativistic effects on valence electrons of the heaviest elements and the impact on chemical properties of these elements. The heaviest elements, however, are all man-made elements synthesized at accelerators using nuclear reactions of heavy-ion beams with heavy element target materials. As both half-lives and cross sections of these nuclides are rapidly decreasing, they are usually available in quantities of only a few atoms or often one atom at a time. Here, we demonstrate recent highlighted studies of the chemical separation and characterization experiments with the heaviest actinides and early transactinides.