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Previous | Home | NextThe isolation and purification of plutonium for the Manhattan Project required a sophisticated undestanding of the chemistry of the element, which Seaborg worked out. Being a member of the actinide group, its chemistry was complex and similar to the other members of this group. The of oxidation states of plutonium, shown in this photo, underscores this complexity. The chemistry of plutonium was noticeably akin to that of uranium, and not to osmium. Hence, Seaborg decided that plutonium (and others with similar atomic number) resided not in the transition metal group of the Periodic Table, but instead in a new group analogous to the rare earths, called the "actinides" after actinium, the first member of the series. Courtesy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
