Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry

Research in the Hixon group focuses on understanding and quantifying the behavior of actinide elements in natural and engineered systems. The actinide elements are those with atomic numbers 89 - 103 (i.e., actinium through lawrencium) and carry great society importance due to their use in medicine, power generation, national security, and nuclear waste management. Due to the complex nature of the actinide elements and the relative difficulty of working with radioactive materials, research in actinide chemistry has lagged far behind that of most other elements on the periodic table.

Broadly speaking, research in the Hixon group falls into one of three categories:

• environmental radiochemistry - working to improve predictions of the fate and transport of actinide elements
• nuclear forensics and non-proliferation - studying how the chemical and physical properties of actinide materials change as a function of time, temperature, and relative humidity
• synthesis and characterization of novel compounds - advancing the basic science of the actinide elements

Undergraduate researchers are paired with a graduate student in one of these areas. Because of the safety requirements of working with radioactive materials, undergraduate students are limited to working with uranium, thorium, and non-radioactive lanthanides; the latter serve as surrogates for plutonium and americium. In addition, all research must be conducted between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm.