Actinide oxide fluorides tetravalent

The lanthanides, unlike the transition metals and the actinides, tend not to form compounds over a range of oxidation states. The +3 oxidation state is characteristic of all of the lanthanides, and the oxide fluorides of formula LnOF (Ln = lanthanide metal) are well known. The less stable oxidation states of + 2 and + 4 are known, but the latter is represented only by the dioxides and tetrafluorides of cerium, praseodymium, and terbium, and no tetravalent oxide fluorides have been reported. 

The absence of reliable thermodynamic data for the tetrafluorides has contributed to difficulties in defining the chemistry of the rare earth elements. The fact that only Ce, Pr, and Tb form stable Rp4(s) phases has been established (see section 2.4) however, the thermochemistry of these fluorides has remained uncertain. Insight is provided by the work of Johansson (1978), who has correlated data for lanthanide and actinide oxides and halides and derived energy differences between the trivalent and tetravalent metal ions. The results, which have been used to estimate enthalpies of disproportionation of RF4 phases, agree with preparative observations and the stability order Prp4< TbP4 < CeP4. However, the results also indicate that tetravalent Nd and Dy have sufficient stability to occur in mixed metal systems like those described by Hoppe (1981). 

Electrochemical measurements have been made of actinide ions in complexed aqueous media, especially carbonate-bicarbonate systems [66-68]. Such measurements are particularly useful in establishing the actinide oxidation states and species present in natural water and biological systems. Complexes such as fluoride, chloride, carbonate, and phosphotungstate are stronger with tetravalent than with trivalent cations, so they significantly stabilize the higher oxidation state. 

An empirical set of effective ionic radii in oxides and fluorides, taking into account the electronic spin state and coordination of both the cation and anion, have been calculated (114). For six-coordinate Bk(III), the radii values are 0.096 nm, based on a six-coordinate oxide ion radius of 0.140 nm, and 0.110 nm, based on a six-coordinate fluoride ion radius of 0.119 nm. For eight-coordinate Bk(IV), the corresponding values are 0.093 and 0.107 nm, based on the same anion radii (114). Other self-consistent sets of trivalent and tetravalent lanthanide and actinide ionic radii, based on isomorphous series of oxides (145, 157) and fluorides (148, 157), have been published. Based on a crystal radius for Cf(III), the ionic radius of isoelectronic Bk(II) was calculated to be 0.114 nm (158). It is important to note, however, that meaningful comparisons of ionic radii can be made only if the values compared are calculated in like fashion from the same type of compound, both with respect to composition and crystal structure. 

Protactinium tetrafluoride, like the other actinide tetrafluorides, possesses the 8-coordinate UF4-type of structure (Table III) but no bond distances are available. It is easily the most stable tetravalent halide of protactinium and can be handled in the atmosphere, at least for a limited period, without hydrolysis or oxidation occurring. As mentioned earlier it is the usual starting material for the preparation of protactinium metal. Tetrafluoride hydrates have not been fully characterized, but a mixed fluorosulfate, PaF2S04 2H20 can be precipitated from aqueous solution (131). Protactinium tetrafluoride is soluble in aqueous ammonium fluoride solutions, for which some spectral properties have been recorded (4, 83). 

Dissolution of the calcium fluoride in aluminum nitrate-nitric acid oxidizes the plutonium to the tetravalent hexanitrate complex (3), while the transplutonium nuclides remain in the trivalent state. The only actinides retained by a nitrate-form anion-exchange column are thorium, neptunium, and plutonium. The uranium distribution coeflBcient under these conditions is about ten, but uranium should not be present at this point since hexavalent uranium does not carry on calcium fluoride (4). 

The chemistry of actinide ions is generally determined by their oxidation states. The trivalent, tetravalent and hexavalent oxidation states are strongly complexed by numerous naturally occurring ligands (carbonates, humates, hydroxide) and man-made complexants (like EDTA), moderately complexed by sulfate and fluoride, and weakly complexed by chloride (7). Under environmental conditions, most uncomplexed metal ions are sorbed on surfaces (2), but the formation of soluble complexes can impede this process. With the exception of thorium, which exists exclusively in the tetravalent oxidation state under relevant conditions, the dominant solution phase species for the early actinides are the pentavalent and hexavalent oxidation states. The transplutonium actinides exist only in the trivalent state under environmentally relevant conditions. 

Analytical methods based on coprecipitation techniques are used to determine the oxidation-state speciation of the light actinides, which can occur in solution in multiple oxidation states. An example of such a separation is the ability to selectively remove tri-and tetravalent actinide cations from penta- and hexavalent species by coprecipitation with lanthanide fluoride (Choppin 1985). Lanthanide fluoride eoprecipitation has been used to perform oxidation-state identification in ground-water samples (e.g., Nash et al. 1988). There are numerous other examples of the application of the coprecipitation technique to environmental samples. 

In Table 20.7 are listed radii of trivalent actinide ions (coordination number CN 6) derived from measurements on trichlorides by the method of Bums, Peterson, and Baybarz [288]. Determinations of M-Cl distances have been made for M = U, Pu, Am, Cm, and Cf the other values were estimated by use of unitcell data and curve fitting. All these radii are relative to the trivalent lanthanide radii of Templeton and Dauben [396], who employed data from cubic sesquioxides and assumed atomic positions to establish M-O distances. Also included in Table 20.7 are radii of tetravalent actinide ions obtained from the M-O distances calculated from unit-cell parameters of the dioxides [1] by subtracting 1.38 A for oxygen (the value used [396] for the sesquioxides). For comparison. Shannon s ionic radii, derived from oxides and fluorides, and Peterson s tetravalent radii, derived from dioxides, are shown [537,538]. As... 

---