Publication Date:
2018-01-20
Description:
Uranium monocarbide (UC) was successfully synthesized by the Pechini-type in-situ polymerizable complex technique (IPC) with the organic matter as the only carbon source. In the aqueous process, a mixture of citric acid (CA) and mannitol with UO 2 2+ was polymerized to form a spongy-like organic polymeric precursor without any precipitations. The structural evolution and formation mechanism of the precursor were investigated using XRD, DSC-TG, SEM (EDX), TEM and FT-IR. XRD results demonstrated that UC was obtained with the UO 2 2+ /mannitol/CA molar ratios of 1.0/0.3/1.0 at a low temperature of 1400 °C. SEM and TEM analyses revealed that the UO 2 nanoparticles were uniformly distributed in the carbon matrix to form UO 2 /C nanocomposites, and submicron-sized ellipsoidal UC particles cemented together. FT-IR showed that a UO 2 2+ -CA chelated structure was firstly obtained, achieving the molecular-scale mixing of uranium and C. Then the in-situ charring guaranteed the intimate contact of UO 2 and C, leading to a low reaction temperature in carbothermal reduction owing to a short diffusion distance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Print ISSN:
0002-7820
Electronic ISSN:
1551-2916
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
Permalink