| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Actinides and Rare Earths Focus Topic | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session AC+EN-TuM |
| Session: | Energetic Materials Issues for Nuclear Power: Fuels, Corrosion and Waste Disposal |
| Presenter: | P. Roussel, AWE, UK |
| Authors: | P. Roussel, AWE, UK A.J. Nelson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to study the oxidation of d-stabilized plutonium between 190K and 300K. The gas-solid reaction on this highly reactive surface depends on the surface energy, electronic structure and temperature along with radiological dissociation of the O2 molecule. The initial oxidation of sputter cleaned Pu metal by O2 forms Pu2O3 followed by formation of PuO2 on the Pu2O3 surface. Angle-resolved measurements indicate that the PuO2 layer thickness is limited to 1.2 nm after continued O2 dosing at the lower temperatures. These results suggest the Mott-Cabrera mechanism of oxidation at low temperature where the rate limiting step is the diffusion on O- anions through the oxide film to the oxide/Pu interface increasing only the thickness of the Pu2O3 layer.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.