Low temperature synthesis of uranium mononitride powder

The uranium mononitride (UN) powder was successfully synthesized through the quantitative nitridation between uranium powder and nitrogen gas at 873 K in this work. After quantitative nitridation at 873 K for 16 h, the single phase of UN powder could be obtained. The realization of the low-temperature synthesis of UN was attributed to the solid-phase reaction between uranium sesquinitride and uranium. The reaction product was mainly UN after calcining the mixture of uranium sesquinitride and uranium powder at 873 K for 8 h, for the Gibbs free energy of this reaction at the 873 K was −160.91 kJ/mol.