Title

Microscopic Characterization of Uranium Nitrides Synthesized by Oxidative Ammonolysis of Uranium Tetrafluoride, Chemistry of Materials

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Publication Title

Chemistry of Materials

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Volume

20

Issue

9

First page number:

3076

Last page number:

3084

Abstract

The oxidative ammonolysis route was used to synthesize three uranium nitrides, UN2, U2N3, and UN, using UF4 as the starting material. Powder XRD analysis showed the UN2 and U2N3 products to contain less than 1.0 wt % uranium oxides. UO2 level was identified to be 5.0 (0) wt % in the UN product as it is made, but this level increases upon exposure to air. The morphology of these nitrides was studied with SEM, while the microstructures of UN2 and U2N3 were investigated by TEM techniques for the first time. An explicit microstructural characterization of UN is also presented. These characterizations showed that UN has a long-range order in its structure and bulk of the UO2 impurities present on the UN microparticle surface, likely originating from minute oxygen impurities in the inert atmosphere cover gas and/or diffusion through the quartz reactor tube at high temperatures. Surface area measurements demonstrated a 10-fold increase in surface area during the ammonolysis step, from 0.03 to 0.26 m2/g, and minimal change during the denitriding step.

Keywords

Ammonia; Nitrides; Solvolysis; Transmission electron microscopes; Uranium ores; Uranium oxides

Disciplines

Analytical Chemistry | Chemistry | Other Chemistry | Radiochemistry

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited


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