The fluorides of uranium—II: Distillation of mixtures of corrosive volatile fluorides including uranium hexafluoride

Abstract

Distillation of binary systems has shown that uranium hexafluoride is completely separable from chlorine trifluoride and bromine trifluoride, but forms azeotropes with hydrogen fluoride and bromine pentafluoride. At pressures above atmospheric, uranium hexafluoride and bromine interdistil without separation. Hydrogen fluoride forms azeotropes with bromine, bromine trifluoride, bromine pentafluoride and chlorine trifluoride. A distillation method has been evolved for purifying uranium hexafluoride from a ternary mixture with chlorine trifluoride and hydrogen fluoride.