Refinement of the crystal structure of UOs₂ from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data

Single crystals of uranium diosmium, UOs₂, were obtained during an investigation of the uranium-osmium binary system by an inter-action of uranium metal with osmium metal in an arc furnace and subsequent annealing. The refinement of the crystal structure of UO₂ was carried out for the first time using single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. In contrast to previous structure reports based on powder diffraction data, the U and Os atoms were refined with all U^ij terms of the displacement parameters considered. UOs₂ adopts the MgCu₂ structure type.