Probing local coordination and oxidation state of uranium in ThO2: U nanostructured

Abstract

Uranium doped thorium oxide nanoparticle (UDT) was synthesized using citric acid assisted combustion method. The concentration of uranium was varied from 0.5 to 5.0 mol % to investigate the effect of doping concentration on its optical properties. The synthesised UDT powder were characterized systematically using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) respectively for phase purity, morphology and crystallinity. Pertaining to nuclear industry, UDT is an important material and investigating the local structure of uranium in UDT is interesting as well as challenging because of complexity involved in synthesis of such ceramic powder. We have used time resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy (TRPLS) to probe the local coordination and oxidation state of uranium in UDT. Based on PL emission spectroscopy it was confirmed that uranium stabilizes as UO22+ ion in UDT. Lifetime spectroscopy shows that uranyl ion is not homogenously distributed in UDT lattice; rather it has two different chemical environments. Effect of concentration on PL behaviour shows that, concentration quenching takes place beyond 2.0 mol %; and based on critical distance calculation multipolar interaction was found to be responsible for such non-radiative quenching. As far as application in luminescence industry is concerned PL measurement shows that UDT gives intense green emission under UV excitation.