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Magnesiothermic reduction kinetics of UF4

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Abstract

The most popular method for production of metallic uranium is by magnesiothermic reduction of UF4. Efficient production of good quality uranium metal chunk in the reaction vessel requires multiple parameter constraints. To theoretically optimize these process parameters, many basic properties, i.e. particle size, heat dissipation, packing density, heating rate, kinetic parameters of reaction, etc., are required. There was lack of information on kinetic parameters of this reaction; therefore, kinetic triplets of UF4 and magnesium metal reaction were determined by non-isothermal DTA method, at 5–20 K min−1 heating rates. The analysis of data was done by model-less methods and model-fitting methods. It was found that the reaction takes place through two parallel competitive mechanisms, bulk diffusion and first-order nucleation and growth of reaction sites, and the corresponding kinetic parameters, frequency factors and activation energies, were 440 min−1, 43.9 kJ mol−1, 420 min−1 and 49.03 kJ mol−1, respectively.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fuel Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Renu Agarwal

  2. Uranium Extraction Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Amulya Raina

  3. Product Development Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Neeraj Kumar Gupta

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  1. Renu Agarwal
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  2. Amulya Raina
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  3. Neeraj Kumar Gupta
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Correspondence to Renu Agarwal.

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Agarwal, R., Raina, A. & Gupta, N.K. Magnesiothermic reduction kinetics of UF4. J Therm Anal Calorim 143, 3353–3363 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10359-w

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