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Just in case anyone\nquestioned where the home of nuclear\nchemistry was, they left the address on the\nperiodic table: lawrencium, berkelium,\ncalifornium, and americium.\n\nAlmost 80 years later, UC Berkeley’s ambitions for its namesake element\nare no longer tied to generating nuclear\nweapons, but rather to improving our\nunderstanding of electronic structure and\nstability in one of the most hostile corners\nof the periodic table. Here, elements bond\nthrough expanded f-orbitals, a poorly\nunderstood set of seven orbitals that can\ncontain up to 14 electrons. A team from\nUC Berkeley and LBL recently published\na paper in Science investigating f-orbital\nbonding in a new organometallic complex\ncalled berkelocene, a species containing a\nberkelium atom sandwiched between two\ncyclooctatetraene (COT) ligands.\n\nUnderstanding bonding at the edge\nof the periodic table is not done purely for\nacademic interest, but for waste management on the planetary timescale. According to Professor Polly Arnold, director\nof the Chemical Sciences Division at\nLBL and a corresponding author on the\npaper, “Our nuclear waste legacy is full\nof these heavy element compounds and,\nif we understand them, we can separate\nout the nastiest radioactive species and\npacify them.” This means that we would\nonly need to curate our nuclear waste for\nthousands of years, not millions.\n\nOne of the first major steps toward\nunderstanding f-orbitals was the 1968\ncreation of uranocene, where uranium is\nsandwiched between two COT ligands\n(another UC Berkeley achievement!).\nThough this was itself a triumph, mysteries about f-orbital bonding remained.\n“These heavy elements are really difficult\nto predict computationally,” says Arnold,\n“so doing experiments on them is crucial.”\nBerkelocene differs slightly from its\nuranium analog in that each COT ligand\nis fused with two cyclopentane rings,\nforming an hdcCOT ligand. This design was deliberate: the staggered arrangement of the hdcCOT ligands enhances\nair stability and improves crystallinity.\nNumerous COT derivatives were synthesized and tested, but the hdcCOT variant proved uniquely capable of yielding\ncrystals suitable for structural analysis.\n\nTo characterize the crystal structure\nof typical inorganic compounds, chemists\nuse a technique called single-crystal X-ray\ndiffraction (SC-XRD). First, a complex is\nsynthesized, purified, and then allowed to\ncrystallize slowly from solution, forming\na regular solid in which molecules are\narranged in repeating units. A suitable\ncrystal is carefully removed from the\nmother liquor (yes, this is the technical\nterm), coated in a protective oil, mounted\non a loop, and placed into a diffractometer. X-rays are directed at the crystal,\nand the resulting diffraction pattern is\nrecorded and analyzed while the crystal is\nrotated. From this data, chemists map the\nelectron density to determine atomic positions and molecular geometry. SC-XRD\nis a powerful technique that reveals the\nprecise structure of a compound in the\nsolid state and has become expected for\nnew organometallic complexes.\n\nSC-XRD is a fragile process at the\nbest of times: crystals may be too small to\nanalyze or leave solution as an amorphous\npowder, or they may decompose or crack\nduring growth. Due to the eight-figure\nprice tag per gram of berkelium, each\nresearcher had to first demonstrate that\ntheir proposed chemistry would succeed\nusing less dangerous and less precious\nanalogs such as cerium and terbium. Even\nafter this, each researcher was allowed just\n0.3 milligrams of berkelium to work with!\n\nThe radioactivity of berkelium\npresented another hurdle: some isotopes\nare roughly 700 million times more\nradioactive than uranium-235, the\nprimary component of nuclear fuel. “It\ntakes just one molecule in that crystal\nundergoing radioactive decay to release\nso much energy that the whole crystal\ngets cracked, gets blown apart,” explains\nProfessor Arnold, so the entire workflow,\nfrom synthesis to SC-XRD, had to be\ncompleted within 48 hours. For the\nsafety of the researchers working with\nberkelium, all work was conducted in a\nnegative-pressure glovebox, severely limiting dexterity, under the close supervision\nof radiation protection specialists. To\navoid puncturing the protective barrier,\nneedles and glass pipettes were prohibited\nand solvent choice was limited, further\ncomplicating the chemistry.\n\nDespite these nearly impossible\nhurdles, the researchers still succeeded,\nmaking a step towards more sustainable\nnuclear waste disposal and elucidating\nfundamental structural and electronic\nfeatures of the poorly understood f-orbital\nelements. “F-orbitals are more chemically\nactive, more involved in bonding than\nwe used to think they were,” explains\nArnold. Even though the researchers\nexpected berkelium’s f-orbital behavior\nto be similar to their proof-of-concept\nexperiments with cerium and terbium,\n“We showed that their chemical properties were significantly different!” Arnold\nremarks.\n\nUltimately, this work marks another\nchapter in a story that began in the 1940s\nat UC Berkeley. From the discovery of\nberkelium to its incorporation into\nberkelocene, it serves as a reminder that\nprogress in chemistry is made by testing\nour boundaries, even when venturing\ninto the most inhospitable corners of the\nperiodic table. As researchers continue\nthis high-stakes work, the legacies of\nberkelium and UC Berkeley become ever\nmore tightly entwined.","image":{"publicURL":"/static/6b55472e9f21091eb897922d96f6d583/26e8122abc0e7cb5596cfd34a0090aa9.png"},"authors":[{"id":"6a1b3de7a1914505ee622e71","name":"Aidan Mills"}],"designers":[{"id":"6a1b3ea8a1914505ee622e75","name":"Alice Parker"}],"categories":[],"magazine":{"id":"6a1b3daba1914505ee622e6e","title":"Spring 2026","issue":50}},"recent":{"edges":[{"node":{"id":"Article_6a1b7b70a1914505ee622e8a","title":"A quarter-century of BSR","authors":[{"id":"6930d4c5a1914505ee622e05","name":"Eleanor Wang"}],"categories":[],"image":{"publicURL":"/static/e2535987c5657a0ccb90aefc70d390fa/d0381637f7e57d0c526bc22c6b39f421.png"},"published_at":"2026-05-31T19:32:44.843Z"}},{"node":{"id":"Article_6a1c7dfda1914505ee622e93","title":"A taste of Ohlone culture","authors":[{"id":"6a1b3e7ea1914505ee622e74","name":"Jack 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