Noble gas compounds

2002/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

The team led by American chemist Bruce Bursten has synthesized some compounds containing noble gases and uranium. The discovery was unexpected when they investigated the interactions between carbon monoxide and uranium. With these components, the CUO molecule was synthesized in a solid neon medium at an approximate temperature of -270 °C.

The chemists tried to repeat the experiment by changing the neon by argon, but the spectrum of the product was very different. To know what happened in the reaction, they had to make theoretical calculations. These calculations indicated that the union between uranium and argon had been formed. Chemicals have shown that xenon and cripton can also be associated with uranium.