A paper published by Prof. David A. Dixon, the Robert Ramsay Chair, and his collaborators Dr. John Gibson (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and Prof. Kirk Peterson (Washington State University) entitled “Activation of water by pentavalent actinide dioxide cations: Characteristic curium reveal by a reactivity turn after americium” Inorg. Chem. 58 (2019) 14005 was recently highlighted by the Department of Energy. The joint experimental and theoretical work was aimed at understanding the gas-phase reaction of the actinide dioxide cations with water. They discovered that very long Cm-O bonds leads to enhanced the reactivity compare to other actinides. The work reveals unexpected new chemistry of these very rare and heavy elements.

The work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Heavy Element Chemistry Program. https://www.energy.gov/science/bes/articles/chemical-extreme-periodic-table-revealed