Theoretical Evaluation of Metal-Ligand Bonding in Neptunium Compounds in Relation to 237Np Mössbauer Spectroscopy.

Abstract

The 237Np Mössbauer isomer shift and quadrupole splitting (QS) are powerful probes for the metal-ligand bonding of neptunium, a 5f-element of vital importance in the nuclear fuel cycle. A large set of Np compounds with different oxidation states (III) to (VII) is studied to investigate, by first-principles calculations, isomer shifts and the QS trends in relation to the Np oxidation state. Natural Bond Orbital analysis reveals that in addition to donation bonding to the 5f shell, participation of the 6d and 7s neptunium shells in covalent (donation) bonding substantially impacts the isomer shifts. The isomer shift cannot be interpreted solely by the 5f shell electron count. The isomer shift for Np(II) compounds is estimated to be in the range of 31-34 mm/s, less positive than for Np(III) compounds. For the QS, density functional calculations fail to reproduce the quadrupole splitting for some Np(VI) ionic solids. A multiconfigurational wave function approach reproduces the observed QS trends. The calculations give a semiquantitative interpretation of the trends for Np oxidation states (V) to (VII). The contrasting QS for standard and "reverse" neptunyl(VI), at the opposite extremes of the observed QS scale, arises predominantly from the different crystal environments.