Periodic Density Functional Theory Calculations of Uranyl Tetrachloride Compounds Engaged in Uranyl-Cation and Uranyl-Hydrogen Interactions: Electronic Structure, Vibrational, and Thermodynamic Analyses.

Abstract

Solid-state uranyl hybrid structures are often formed through unique intermolecular interactions occurring between a molecular uranyl anion and a charge-balancing cation. In this work, solid-state structures of the uranyl tetrachloride anion engaged in uranyl-cation and uranyl-hydrogen interactions were studied using density functional theory (DFT). As most first-principles methods used for systems of this type focus primarily on the molecular structure, we present an extensive benchmarking study to understand the methods needed to accurately model the geometric properties of these systems. From there, the electronic and vibrational structures of the compounds were investigated through projected density of states and phonon analysis and compared to the experiment. Lastly, we present a DFT + thermodynamics approach to calculate the formation enthalpies (ΔHf) of these systems to directly relate to experimental values. Through this methodology, we were able to accurately capture trends observed in experimental results and saw good quantitative agreement in predicted ΔHf compared to the value calculated through referencing each structure to its standard state. Overall, results from this work will be used for future combined experimental and computational studies on both uranyl and neptunyl hybrid structures to delineate how varying intermolecular interaction strengths relates to the overall values of ΔHf.