Thin films of the elusive intermediate uranium oxide U2O5 have been prepared by exposing UO3 precursor multilayers to atomic hydrogen. Electron photoemission spectra measured about the uranium 4f core-level doublet contain sharp satellites separated by 7.9(1) eV from the 4f main lines, whilst satellites characteristics of the U(IV) and U(VI) oxidation states, expected respectively at 6.9(1) and 9.7(1) eV from the main 4f lines, are absent. This shows that uranium ions in the films are in a pure pentavalent oxidation state, in contrast to previous investigations of binary oxides claiming that U(V) occurs only as a metastable intermediate state coexisting with U(IV) and U(VI) species. The ratio between the 5f valence band and 4f core-level uranium photoemission intensities decreases by about 50% from UO2 to U2O5, which is consistent with the 5f 2 (UO2) and 5f 1 (U2O5) electronic configurations of the initial state. Our studies conclusively establish the stability of uranium pentoxide.
GOUDER Thomas;
ELOIRDI Rachel;
CACIUFFO Roberto;
2018-07-23
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
JRC111627
2045-2322,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC111627,
10.1038/s41598-018-26594-z,
| Name | Country | City | Type |
|---|
This document is only visible at the Commission level.
You are not authorized to publish or distribute it outside the European Commission.
This is a public document. You can share this publication.
Datasets
| ID | Title | Public URL |
|---|
Dataset collections
| ID | Acronym | Title | Public URL |
|---|
Scripts / source codes
| Description | Public URL |
|---|
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type |
|---|