Surface reactions of uranium oxide powder, thin films and single crystals

The review deals with surface reactions of the complex uranium oxide systems with relevance to catalysis and the environment. After a brief introduction on the properties of uranium oxides, the focus of the review is on surface science studies of defined structures of uranium oxides which are entirely on UO2 because of the lack of available model on other uranium oxide systems. Powder work is also included as it has given considerable information related to the dynamics between the many phases of uranium oxides. Many chemical reactions are mapped and these include water dissociative adsorption and reaction, CO oxidation and reductive coupling, as well as the reaction of oxygen containing organic compounds such as alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids in addition to a few examples of sulfur and nitrogen containing compounds.