Prieur Damien, Vigier Jean-François, Popa Karin, Walter Olaf, Dieste Oliver, Varga Zsolt, Beck Aaron, Vitova Tonya, Scheinost Andreas C, Martin Philippe M
Institute of Resource Ecology, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), P.O. Box 510119, 01314 Dresden, Germany.
The Rossendorf Beamline at ESRF-The European Synchrotron, CS40220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Inorg Chem. 2021 Oct 4;60(19):14550-14556. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c01071. Epub 2021 Sep 15.
In view of safe management of the nuclear wastes, a sound knowledge of the atomic-scale properties of UMO nanoparticles is essential. In particular, their cation valences and oxygen stoichiometries are of great interest as these properties drive their diffusion and migration behaviors into the environment. Here, we present an in-depth study of UCeO, over the full compositional domain, by combining X-ray diffraction and high-energy resolution fluorescence detection X-ray absorption near-edge structure. We show, on one hand, the coexistence of U, U, and U and, on the other hand, that the fluorite structure is maintained despite this charge distribution.
