Chemical Interaction with Radioactive Polonium and Water

One of the branches of chemistry is the investigation of chemical properties to study the ways they interact, combine, and change to see what new substances can be formed. Unfortunately, the investigation of the chemistry of certain elements is complicated as there is no stable, naturally occurring isotope. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Heavy Element Group we are working towards new methods of studying the chemistry of the shortest elements. First, these elements are produced a single atom-at-a-time at the 88-Inch Cyclotron Facility. Then, using a combination of the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator and the FIONA mass analyzer, the short-lived elements can be separated from other reaction products, trapped, and allowed to react with reactive gasses. Then the reaction products are separated by their mass-to-charge ratio. Recently, FIONA has been used to investigate reactions between polonium and gasses such as water, chloromethane, oxygen, and more. Here we will show the results of recent experiments investigating how the amount of water in the trap impacts the different complexes that Po forms with water.