Ultra-Small Plutonium Oxide Nanocrystals: An Innovative Material in Plutonium Science

Apart from its sensitive technological importance, plutonium (Pu) is also one of the most intriguing elements because of its non-conventional physical properties and fascinating chemistry. Those fundamental aspects are particularly interesting when dealing with the challenging study of plutonium-based nanomaterials. Here we show that ultra-small (3.2  0.9 nm) and highly crystalline plutonium oxide (PuO2) nanocrystals (NCs) can be synthesized by the thermal decomposition of plutonyl nitrate (PuO2(NO3)2*3H2O) in a highly coordinating organic medium. This is the first example reporting on the preparation, in a controllable and reproducible manner, of significant quantities (several tens of milligrams) of PuO2 NCs. In addition, a whole set of data (based on various and complementary techniques) related to the structural characterization and magnetic properties of PuO2 NCs is reported. The current NCs constitute innovative fundamental building-blocks for the study of challenging problems as diverse as the transport of plutonium into the environment or the size and shape effects on the physics of transuranium elements.

HUDRY Damien;  GRIVEAU Jean-Christophe;  APOSTOLIDIS Christos;  WALTER Olaf;  JANSSEN Arne;  MANARA Dario;  COLINEAU Eric;  VITOVA T.;  WANG Di;  KUEBEL Christian;  MEYER D.J.M.; 

2014-08-14

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

JRC84644

0947-6539,   

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/chem.201402008/abstract,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC84644,   

10.1002/chem.201402008,