Americium in a MOF

Actinide Chemistry Americium is a by-product in nuclear reactors that continues to emit radiation for thousands of years. Its separation from spent nuclear fuels has therefore motivated copious study of its fundamental coordination chemistry. To this end, Cahill et al. have now incorporated trivalent 243Am ions into a metal-organic framework (MOF). The framework architecture was chosen on the basis of known analogs prepared from chemically similar but more stable lanthanide ions. Although radioactive decay progressively damaged the crystals, the authors were still able to refine structural data over the course of 3 months. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 10.1002/anie.201909988 (2019).