The electron affinity of astatine.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32733029.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-17599-2 and PMC identifier 7393155.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
One of the most important properties influencing the chemical behavior of an element is the electron affinity (EA). Among the remaining elements with unknown EA is astatine, where one of its isotopes, <sup>211</sup>At, is remarkably well suited for targeted radionuclide therapy of cancer. With the At<sup>-</sup> anion being involved in many aspects of current astatine labeling protocols, the knowledge of the electron affinity of this element is of prime importance. Here we report the measured value of the EA of astatine to be 2.41578(7) eV. This result is compared to state-of-the-art relativistic quantum mechanical calculations that incorporate both the Breit and the quantum electrodynamics (QED) corrections and the electron-electron correlation effects on the highest level that can be currently achieved for many-electron systems. The developed technique of laser-photodetachment spectroscopy of radioisotopes opens the path for future EA measurements of other radioelements such as polonium, and eventually super-heavy elements.