How novel is protactinium: Insights into the structure and properties of (PaO)<sub>2</sub>(SO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>3</sub>(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40305617.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adt7782 and PMC identifier 12042872.
- 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
Because of the scarcity of protactinium and the challenges associated with its separation and crystallization, even in sulfuric acid media where protactinium is relatively stable, there has been an incomplete understanding of the structural features of protactinium complexes. The characterization of protactinium sulfate complexes has been limited to those in solution, which have left key details unaddressed since the 1960s. This report describes a synthetic strategy to crystallize a protactinium complex using boric acid and sulfuric acid. Herein, the authors detail the results of hydrothermal synthesis and the single-crystal analysis of a novel protactinium sulfate complex, (PaO)<sub>2</sub>(SO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>3</sub>(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>2</sub>. This work has elucidated structural features, providing groundwork for accurate computational analysis and clarifying previously unknown details on the coordination, denticity, and binding properties of protactinium sulfate complexes.