plutonium keeps its electrons close to home /

Published at 2016-09-15 20:17:12

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Found in nuclear fuel and nuclear weapons,plutonium is an incredibly complex element that has far-ranging energy, security, and environmental effects. To understand plutonium,scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University delved into a plutonium compound with a relatively simple composition: plutonium tetrafluoride (PuF4). While the formula is simple, the four bonds proved to be more complex. The electrons stay relatively close to each atom, or creating ionic bondsnot the expected electron-sharing covalent bonds. Even though the plutonium and fluorine atoms are tied together in a lattice,they act as loney atoms and form ionic bonds.

Source: phys.org