AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Electronic Materials and Photonics Thursday Sessions
       Session EM-ThP

Paper EM-ThP13
Dependence of Electrical Conductivity on Observed Microstructure of Sintered U3O8

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 6:00 pm, Room Hall D

Session: EMPD Poster Session
Presenter: Seth Lawson, The University of Tennessee Knoxville
Authors: S. Lawson, The University of Tennessee Knoxville
B.C. Shaver, The University of Tennessee Knoxville
B. Musicó, The University of Tennessee Knoxville
S. Dhungana, University of Missouri-Kansas City
G. Bhattarai, University of Missouri-Kansas City
M.M. Paquette, University of Missouri-Kansas City
A.N. Caruso, University of Missouri-Kansas City
T. Meek, The University of Tennessee Knoxville
Correspondent: Click to Email
Actinide compounds, such as uranium oxides, have been shown to have band gaps similar to conventional semiconducting materials such as Si, Ge, and GaAs but with significantly higher operating temperatures as well as higher resistance to radiation damage, allowing for possible use as a detector material in environments and conditions that would otherwise be impractical. Under standard atmosphere and pressure, U3O8 is the most stable form of uranium oxide. This work will focus on the stoichiometric composition and will detail the methods used to develop green pellets of U3O8 from natural uranium in the form of uranyl acetate. Understanding the microstructure morphology of these pellets as a function of sintering conditions is an important step toward elucidating the activation energy of sintering and grain growth kinetics of this material. The morphology and grain size can then be correlated to changes of measured electrical properties. Optical microscopy was used to determine the grain characteristics for each sintering condition in order to evaluate the influence on sintering on grain growth. Electrical property studies were conducted with measurements including four-point van der Pauw resistivity and DC Hall measurements. These studies will contribute to a larger effort aimed at exploring the electrical properties of uranium oxides to determine whether the properties of U3O8 can be optimized to fabricate a competitive direct conversion solid-state neutron detector.