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U⁶⁺ MINERALS AND INORGANIC COMPOUNDS: INSIGHTS INTO AN EXPANDED STRUCTURAL HIERARCHY OF CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

Peter C. Burns

Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, 156 Fitzpatrick Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, U.S.A., and Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass, Argonne, Illinois 60439, U.S.A.

E-mail address: pburns{at}ndu.edu

The crystal structures of uranyl minerals and inorganic uranyl compounds are important for understanding the genesis of U deposits, the interaction of U mine and mill tailings with the environment, transport of actinides in soils and the vadose zone, the performance of geological repositories for nuclear waste, and for the development of advanced materials with novel applications. Over the past decade, the number of inorganic uranyl compounds (including minerals) with known structures has more than doubled, and reconsideration of the structural hierarchy of uranyl compounds is warranted. Here, 368 inorganic crystal structures that contain essential U⁶⁺ are considered (of which 89 are minerals). They are arranged on the basis of the topological details of their structural units, which are formed by the polymerization of polyhedra containing higher-valence cations. Overarching structural categories correspond to those based upon isolated polyhedra (8), finite clusters (43), chains (57), sheets (204), and frameworks (56) of polyhedra. Within these categories, structures are organized and compared upon the basis of either their graphical representations, or in the case of sheets involving sharing of edges of polyhedra, upon the topological arrangement of anions within the sheets.

Keywords: uranium, actinide, crystal structure, structural hierarchy, nuclear waste.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. Z. Forbes, C. Wallace, and P. C. Burns NEPTUNYL COMPOUNDS: POLYHEDRON GEOMETRIES, BOND-VALENCE PARAMETERS, AND STRUCTURAL HIERARCHY Can Mineral, December 1, 2008; 46(6): 1623 - 1645. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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