Probing elemental chemistry with physics techniques: studying holmium chemistry through its nuclear physics properties

In recent years, the push to study the chemical and physical properties of the heaviest elements has been driven by their application in nuclear medicine, waste disposal and nuclear power. Their chemical behaviors have been a challenge to observe as they are primarily radioactive and are produced in minute quantities, making traditional benchwork nearly impossible. At the 88-inch cyclotron facility of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a novel gas-phase chemistry technique has been created, using the Berkeley Gas-Filled Separator and the FIONA mass analyzer experimental setup. This setup makes atom-at-a-time chemistry possible, where single radioactive ions are trapped and reacted with various gasses, allowing the formation of complexes. The resulting molecules are then identified by their mass, providing a laboratory for simple and clean chemistry. The technique can be benchmarked by comparison to traditional chemistry laboratory experiments on holmium while at the same time providing complementary information on this element. The use of this novel technique will be described and preliminary results on the chemistry of holmium will be presented.