Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.54, No.7, 3552-3561, 2015
A New Look at the Structural Properties of Trisodium Uranate Na3UO4
The crystal structure of trisodium uranate, which forms following the interaction between sodium and hyperstoichiometric urania, has been solved for the first time using powder X-ray and neutron diffraction, X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy, and solid-state Na-23 multiquantum magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance. The compound, isostructural with Na3BiO4, has monoclinic symmetry, in space group P2/c. Moreover, it has been shown that this structure can accommodate some cationic disorder, with up to 16(2)% sodium on the uranium site, corresponding to the composition alpha-Na-3(U1-x,Na-x)O-4 (0 < x < 0.18). The a phase adopts a mixed valence state with the presence of U(V) and U(VI). The two polymorphs of this compound described in the literature, m- and beta-Na-3(U1-x,Na-x)O-4, have also been investigated, and their relationship to the alpha phase has been established. The completely disordered low-temperature cubic phase corresponds to a metastable phase. The semiordered high-temperature beta phase is cubic, in space group Fd (3) over barm.