Plutonium and Plutonium Compounds

Abstract

The discovery of plutonium, its economic and military importance, sources, production, and nuclear properties are reviewed. The economic aspects of weapons‐ and reactor‐grade plutonium are outlined. The preparation and properties of plutonium metal and its alloys are discussed in detail. A presentation of the physical and chemical properties of atomic plutonium and stable plutonium ions is given. The complexation and hydrolysis properties of these ions are recapitulated. Analytical chemistry, separations technology, and metallurgy (including pyrometallurgical processing) are described. There is a brief treatment of storage and disposal of excess weapons plutonium. The chemistry of several classes of plutonium compounds is described: oxides, halides, oxyhalides, hydrides, carbides, silicides, nitrides, sulfides, and oxalates. The article concludes with a treatment of environmental, health, and safety aspects of plutonium.

Dispersion in the Mott insulator UO2: A comparison of photoemission spectroscopy and screened hybrid density functional theory

“…(2) (2) When this decomposition is applied to the general hybrid functional of eq. (1), then the exchange-correlation energy takes the form:…”

“…1 Pu exhibits both localized and itinerant character depending on the particular phase considered. [2][3][4] The intermetallic compounds such as UPt 3 exhibit ''heavy fermion'' behavior, which is another indication of this ambivalence. 5 The heavy fermion materials generally conduct, but are sluggish about it-they have large effective masses.…”

“…[20][21][22][23][24] Most recently, the development of screened hybrid DFT by Heyd, Scuseria and Enzerhof (HSE) 25,26 has extended the utility of this approach to metals as well as insulators. 23,24,[27][28][29][30][31][32] In this study, we will revisit the electronic structure of UO 2 and present a comparison between screened hybrid DFT and photoemission spectroscopy (PES). These results will show a direct correlation between experimental and theoretical density of states as well as the band structure computed with a hybrid density functional.…”