Synthesis of phase-pure U2N3 microspheres and its decomposition into UN

Silva, Chinthaka M.; Hunt, Rodney Dale; Snead, Lance Lewis; Terrani, Kurt A.

doi:10.1021/ic502457n

Synthesis of phase-pure U₂N₃ microspheres and its decomposition into UN

Journal Article · Fri Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Inorganic Chemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ic502457n· OSTI ID:1265341

Silva, Chinthaka M. ^[1]; Hunt, Rodney Dale ^[1]; Snead, Lance Lewis ^[1]; Terrani, Kurt A. ^[1]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science & Technology Division

Uranium mononitride (UN) is important as a nuclear fuel. Fabrication of UN in its microspherical form also has its own merits since the advent of the concept of accident-tolerant fuel, where UN is being considered as a potential fuel in the form of TRISO particles. But, not many processes have been well established to synthesize kernels of UN. Therefore, a process for synthesis of microspherical UN with a minimum amount of carbon is discussed herein. First, a series of single-phased microspheres of uranium sesquinitride (U₂N₃) were synthesized by nitridation of UO₂+C microspheres at a few different temperatures. Resulting microspheres were of low-density U₂N₃ and decomposed into low-density UN. The variation of density of the synthesized sesquinitrides as a function of its chemical composition indicated the presence of extra (interstitial) nitrogen atoms corresponding to its hyperstoichiometry, which is normally indicated as α-U₂N₃. Average grain sizes of both U₂N₃ and UN varied in a range of 1–2.5 μm. In addition, these had a considerably large amount of pore spacing, indicating the potential sinterability of UN toward its use as a nuclear fuel.

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1265341

Journal Information:: Inorganic Chemistry, Journal Name: Inorganic Chemistry Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 54; ISSN 0020-1669

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (1)

Thermally-Conductive and Mechanically-Robust Graphene Nanoplatelet Reinforced UO2 Composite Nuclear Fuels Yao, Tiankai; Xin, Guoqing; Scott, Spencer Michael Scientific Reports, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21034-4	journal	February 2018

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