The crystal structure of the β phase of uranium

Following the electroreduction of uranium dioxide to uranium in LiCl–KCl eutectic in situ using synchrotron radiation

“…The electroreduction appears to occur via a single, 4-electron, step and no intermediate products were observed. Uranium metal possesses three crystalline modifications; a, b and c [40]. The a phase is stable up to a temperature of 660°C, the b phase is stable from 660 to 760°C whilst the c phase is stable from 760 to 1312°C -its melting point.…”

Structure, formation energies and elastic constants of uranium metal investigated by first principles calculations

“…The space group no. 102 was originally favored by Tucker [6,7], but later dropped in favor of the group no. 136 by Tucker and Senio [9,28].…”

“…According the geometrical environment, such as the bond length, the 30 atoms can be classified into five types. However, the exact arrangement of these atoms has been a controversial question for long time [6][7][8][9][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. At the early stage of 1980s, the controversy resolved itself as to which of the three possible space group is correct: no.…”

“…Especially, we pay the main attention to the structure of ␤-U by considering the facts below. In order to obtain the single crystal of ␤-U at room temperature, 1.4 at.% Cr was usually added as the stabilizer in experiments [6][7][8][9]. However, it is not known whether these alloys have the same structure and property as the pure ␤-U.…”

Simulation studies on the structural stability and properties of beta uranium

“…However, growing single crystals of pure β-U is consumedly hard. Single crystals can be prepared and quenched to room temperature, and small concentrations of chromium can be used to stabilize such crystals, but we can not determine whether the U-Cr alloys have the same structure as pure β-U or not [14][15][16].…”