Consolidated Curium Reprocessing Procedure Inspires Molecular Design for Sensitized Curium Circularly Polarized...

Curium's stable redox chemistry and ability to emit strong metal-based luminescence make it uniquely suitable for spectroscopic studies among the actinide series. Targeted ligand and coordination compound design can support both fundamental electronic structure studies and industrial safeguards with the identification of unique spectroscopic signatures. However, limited availability, inherent radioactive hazards, and arduous purifications have long inhibited such investigations of this element. A consolidated reprocessing procedure for curium has been developed for the milligram scale. The recovery of not only standard legacy curium samples but also hazardous legacy perchlorate containing curium samples was achieved, culminating in column chromatography utilizing the extraction resin DGA (N,N,N',N'-tetra-2-ethylhexyldiglycolamide, branched). Surprisingly, controlled elution of the Cm band from the extraction resin was followed through bright pink luminescence triggered by an inexpensive hand-held UV-vis lamp (380-400 nm). This observation inspired the design of an enantiopure, C₂-symmetrical ligand bearing a chiral (trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane) backbone with achiral DGA moieties (N,N,N',N'-tetra-n-octylacetamide), that enabled rarely observed curium circularly polarized luminescence upon metal chelation. These combined achievements should unlock more luminescence and circularly polarized luminescence studies of curium, and enable the recovery of many curium and other trivalent actinide samples.