BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Scientists from the University at Buffalo and the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered "berkelocene," the first organometallic molecule to be characterized containing the heavy element berkelium.

Organometallic molecules, which consist of a metal ion surrounded by a carbon-based framework, are relatively common for early actinide elements like uranium (atomic number 92), but are scarcely known for later actinides like berkelium (atomic number 97).

"This is the first time that evidence for the formation of a chemical bond between berkelium and carbon has been obtained. The discovery provides new understanding of how berkelium and other actinides behave relative to their peers in the periodic table," says Stefan Minasian, a scientist in Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division, which led the research, and one of four co-corresponding authors of a new study published in the journal Science.

The electronic structure calculations of berkelocene were performed at UB by co-corresponding author Jochen Autschbach, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Larkin Professor in the UB Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences.

These calculations revealed an unexpected finding about how berkelocene, one of 15 actinides in the periodic table's f-block, behaves in comparison to the lanthanides, which are located one row above the actinides on the periodic table.

"The electronic structure calculations, as well as the experimental observations, show that berkelocene is unlike its lanthanide analogs, which disrupts long-held assumptions about the chemical and physical properties of transplutonium elements," Autschbach says.