The Dawn of Radiochemistry

Americium(III) coordination chemistry: An unexplored diversity of structure and bonding

“…Interestingly, a direct comparison of the M-O(carboxylate) in the NTA and citric molecules shows a slight evolution from Am to Nd for the NTA complexes (2.47 Å for Am and 2.45 Å for Nd) and none for the citrate complexes (2.50 Å for Am(2) and 2.50 Å for Nd (2)). Similarly, the M-N(amine) evolution in the NTA complexes (2.70 Å for Am and 2.72 Å for Nd) is slightly larger than the M-O(hydroxy) evolution in the citrate complexes (2.37 Å for Am, 2.36 Å for Nd).…”

“…From that date (or even going back to the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Rö ntgen the previous year) through to the decade immediately after the Second World War, the chemistry of radiating elements, still called radioelements, expanded considerably, concomitant with the amazing progress in quantum and atomic physics [2]. Certainly the work of Pierre and Marie Curie from 1898 onwards, whose public aura largely exceeded the purely scientific world, ensured that the chemistry of the radioelements, commonly called radiochemistry, took off and became a separate discipline in itself.…”

Nobel Prize awards in Radiochemistry

“…2) came upon the scene. Within a few months, from April to December 1898, they discovered two new elements, polonium and radium, that they identified solely by the emission of Becquerel radiations [6,7]. In their first publication (April 22, 1898) in the weekly Comptes rendus of the Académie des Sciences Marie Curie reported that certain uraniumbearing minerals, in particular pitchblende, emitted more rays than metallic uranium and concluded, "this fact is quite remarkable and suggests that these minerals may contain an element much more active than uranium itself" [8].…”

The "X" - Compounds, a Breakthrough in the Early History of Radioactivity

“…It was the ionization chamber coupled to a piezoelectric quartz that enabled for the first time a quantitative measurement of the intensity of uranic rays [2].…”

“…At the end of 1898, the year of the discovery of polonium and radium by Pierre and Marie Curie, little was known about the phenomenon of radioactivity [2]. In September of that year, Ernest Rutherford (1871Rutherford ( -1937 had submitted his first publication on radioactivity which appeared in January 1899 [3].…”