Thermal diffusivity of Americium mononitride from 373 to 1473 K

The thermal diffusivity of AmN was measured from 373 to 1473 K by a laser flash method. The AmN sample was prepared from AmO2 by the carbothermic reduction. The obtained AmN product was grinded and pressed at about 400 MPa to form a disk. The disk was sintered at 1823 K for 10 h in flowing N2 + 4%H2 gas. The thermal diffusivity slightly decreased from 3.4 × 10−6 to 2.8 × 10−6 m2/s with increasing temperature. As the specific heat capacity of AmN was not available in literature, the thermal conductivity of AmN was tentatively estimated from the measured thermal diffusivity, bulk density and the specific heat capacity of PuN. It was found that the thermal conductivity of AmN slightly increased with temperature. The thermal conductivity of AmN corrected to 100%TD was found to be smaller than those of UN, NpN and PuN, whereas that of AmN was larger than those of UO2 and (U0.8Pu0.2)O2.