Electron Affinity of UF6
Burak A Tufekci1, Shiying Wang1, Lan Cheng1
1Department of Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States.
Abstract:
We report an anion photoelectron spectroscopic study of the photodetachment of uranium hexafluoride anion (UF6-) to neutral UF6, the primary species involved in uranium isotopic enrichment. The adiabatic electron affinity (AEA) of UF6 and the vertical detachment energy (VDE) of UF6-, both predicted using high-level relativistic coupled-cluster calculations, provided unequivocal support for the assignment of the observed spectral features in the anion photoelectron spectrum of UF6-. The experimental AEA value of UF6 and the VDE value of UF6- were determined to be 5.05 ± 0.10 eV and 5.66 ± 0.10 eV, respectively. This work provides the first direct, spectroscopic determination of the electron affinity of UF6.
Related Concept Videos
Electron Affinity
Electron Configuration of Multielectron Atoms
The Energies of Atomic Orbitals
Electron Configurations
The relative energies of the subshells determine the order in which atomic orbitals are filled (1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s,...
Nuclear Fusion
A helium nucleus has a mass that is 0.7% less than that of four hydrogen nuclei; this lost mass is converted into energy during the fusion. This reaction produces about...
Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy


