This project aims at revealing the so far uncatched chemical behavior of protactinium in solution and questioning potential analogies with thorium and uranium.

Protactinium is thought as a crossing point within the actinide series, in between thorium (“transition-metal like”) and uranium (“actinide like”). (Un)fortunately, it is usually co-occuring with these other two elements and separation is required for making applications real. For interpreting previous experiments as well as for guiding future ones, I have proposed to strenghen the theory/experiment synergy by developing computational strategies to predict relative complexation constants as well as absorption spectra. The CHESS project, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) involves several theoretical partners (CTI team of ISCR, PCMT team of PhLAM and ModES team of CEISAM) as well as experimental ones (RAPHYNEE team from IJCLab and PRISMA team from Subatech). It capitalizes on the outcomes of the PaPAn project, previously funded by the Pays de la Loire region.