Teng-Ming Chen, J. Corbett
1989
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0
Influential Citations
3
Citations
Journal
Chemistry of Materials
Abstract
The syntheses of cesium zirconates, potentially important sinks for fission-product cesium in Zircaloy-clad reactor systems, have been investigated for a diversity of reactions. The most effective synthetic routes involve involve reactions of elemental Cs and Zr with O{sub 2} in open systems at slowly increasing temperatures or of finely divided ZrO{sub 2} with Cs{sub 2}O (from Cs + CsO{sub 2}) in sealed silver tubing as the temperature is increased to 650-700{degree}C. Phase-pure Cs{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} has been obtained and shown to be isostructural with Cs{sub 2}PbO{sub 3} (Cmcm, Z = 4, a = 11.271 (7) A, b = 7.743 (4) {angstrom}, c = 5.956 (5) {angstrom}; R, R{sub w} = 5.1, 5.8%). Two other cesium zirconates that contain a higher proportion of ZrO{sub 2} have also been identified in mixtures produced by the second type of reaction. Their compositions have been estimated as 3Cs{sub 2}O{center dot}7ZrO{sub 2} and 2Cs{sub 2}O{center dot}7ZrO{sub 2} on the basis of the unit-cell volumes determined from single crystals of each together with known data for Cs{sub 2}ZrO{sub 3} and the previously reported Cs{sub 4}ZrO{sub 4}.