Extremely complex plutonium has ties to energy and security. Scientists found that plutonium's behavior, in plutonium tetrafluoride, can be attributed to atoms hoarding electrons Found in nuclear fuel ...

Oxidation is the process where atoms lose electrons during a chemical reaction. Among the radioactive elements, neptunium and plutonium are much harder to oxidize than uranium. To study these elements ...

Plutonium expands by 25% when its crystal structure changes from its ‘alpha’ form, at around 400 K, to its ‘delta’ form at 600 K. But the theory typically used to explain crystal structure, known as ...

Physicists have gained new insight into the origins of superconductivity -- a property of metals where electrical resistance vanishes -- by studying exotic chemical compounds that contain neptunium ...

Two cathode inductive voltage-adder cells on the electrical test stand are aligned at Sandia National Laboratories. After thousands of tests, each holding 50 kilovolts across the insulating gap, they ...

Researchers studying the crystalline structure of radioactive plutonium have happened onto the first plutonium-based superconductor. Like other superconductors, this one carries electricity with zero ...

Electrons in one particular solid phase of plutonium are complex characters: while bound to atoms, in a quantum-mechanical mixture of two different valence states, they also roam freely throughout the ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Physicists at Rutgers and Columbia universities have gained new insight into the origins of superconductivity – a property of metals where electrical resistance vanishes – by ...