Characterization of urania vaporization with transpiration coupled thermogravimetry

• Equilibrium UO3 gas pressures by transpiration coupled thermogravimetry.
• Thermodynamic modeling of equilibrium oxygen and UO3 pressures for UO2+x.
• An existing thermochemical database is recommended.

Transpiration measurements are very useful for determining equilibrium vapor pressures of materials. However, the traditional technique involves condensing the volatiles entrained in a carrier gas outside of the hot measurement zone. One potential problem is deposition en route to a cooled collector. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) can be used to measure in situ mass loss due to vaporization and therefore obviate the need to analyze the entire gas train due to premature plating of vapor species. Therefore, a transpiration coupled TGA technique was used to determine equilibrium pressures of UO3 gas over fluorite structure UO2+x and U3O8 at T = (1573 and 1773) K. The results are compared to calculations from models and databases in the open literature. This study gives clarity to the thermochemical data for UO3 gas and validates the mass loss transpiration method using thermogravimetry for determining equilibrium vapor pressures of non-stoichiometric oxides.