Kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of uranium hexafluoride and tritium

Abstract

Using infrared analysis, we found that the reaction rate of gaseous uranium hexafluoride and tritium is determined solely by the rate at which energy from the radioactive decay of tritium is absorbed in the reaction mixture. Because uranium hexafluoride and tritium absorb β-energy with different efficiencies, the reaction rate is somewhat dependent on the initial reactant concentrations. Reaction products include uranium subfluorides and tritium fluoride. A radiochemistry model has been developed that includes β-energy production and absorption in the gas phase to allow calculation of the reaction yield per ion pair formed. With this model it was found that the reaction mechanism does not include lengthy chain propagation steps-only about 10 uranium hexafluoride molecules are consumed for each ion-pair formed in the gas phase. Many possible reaction steps are suggested that could contribute to the observed overall mechanism.