Reaction of water vapor and oxygen with liquid uranium

Abstract

The reactions of water vapor and oxygen with liquid uranium were studied by modulated molecular-beam mass spectrometric methods. Equivalent pressures of the reactant fluxes on the surface ranged from 6×10 ⁻⁶ to 2×10⁻⁴ torr. Temperatures up to 1570 K were investigated. The metal surface was kept clean during reaction by mechanical removal of the oxide formed with a tungsten needle. For the clean liquid uranium surface, a water reaction probability of ∼0.4 was deduced both from measurement of the reaction-product hydrogen signal and by the temperature dependence of the scattered reactant signal. Based solely on the latter measure, a reaction probability of 0.6 was estimated for oxygen. The reaction probabilities on the clean surface were temperatureindependent. They decreased as the coverage of the surface by islands of oxide increased and, for water, appeared to approach a value of 0.08 for a surface completely covered with an oxide estimated to be 500 Å thick. Bombardment of the surface during reaction with argon ions produced an increase in the reactivity on solid uranium but had a negligible effect on the reaction probability for the liquid.