Iridium nuclear properties

The elements will be discussed in the order of increasing atomic number in the Periodic Table, i.e. nickel, zinc, technetium, ruthenium, silver, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, rhem um, osmium, iridium, platinum, gold, and mercury. Full numerical data of the relevant nuclear properties are summarized, as for other elements, in Appendix 1. 

Plutonium-noble metal compounds have both technological and theoretical importance. Modeling of nuclear fuel interactions with refractory containers and extension of alloy bonding theories to include actinides require accurate thermodynamic properties of these materials. Plutonium was shown to react with noble metals such as platinum, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium to form highly stable intermetallics. 

It is a matter of historical interest that Mossbauer spectroscopy has its deepest root in the 129.4 keV transition line of lr, for which R.L. Mossbauer established recoilless nuclear resonance absorption for the first time while he was working on his thesis under Prof. Maier-Leibnitz at Heidelberg [267]. But this nuclear transition is, by far, not the easiest one among the four iridium Mossbauer transitions to use for solid-state applications the 129 keV excited state is rather short-lived (fi/2 = 90 ps) and consequently the line width is very broad. The 73 keV transition line of lr with the lowest transition energy and the narrowest natural line width (0.60 mm s ) fulfills best the practical requirements and therefore is, of all four iridium transitions, most often (in about 90% of all reports published on Ir Mossbauer spectroscopy) used in studying electronic stractures, bond properties, and magnetism. 

There are several examples of well-characterized tri- and tetranu-clear hydroxo-bridged complexes of chromium(III) and cobalt(III). Penta- and hexanuclear aqua chromium(III) complexes have been prepared in solution, but their structure and properties are unknown. Oligomers of nuclearity higher than four have not been reported for cobalt(IIl), with the exception of some hetero-bridged heteronuclear species (193, 194). There appear to be no reports of rhodium(III) or iridium(III) complexes of nuclearity higher than two. 

Plutonium-noble metal compounds have both technological and theoretical importance. Modeling of nuclear fuel interactions with refractory containers and extension of alloy bonding theories to include actinides require accurate thermodynamic properties of these materials. Plutonium was shown to react with noble metals such as platinum, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium to form highly stable intermetallics. Vapor pressures of phases in these systems were measured by the Knudsen effusion technique. Use of mass spectrometer-target collection apparatus to perform thermodynamic studies is discussed. The prominent sublimation reactions for these phases below 2000 K was shown to involve formation of elemental plutonium vapor. Thermodynamic properties determined in this study were correlated with corresponding values obtained from theoretical predictions and from previous measurements on analogous intermetallics. 

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