Synthesis of neptunium trichloride and measurements of its melting temperature

Hayashi, Hirokazu ; Takano, Masahide ; Kurata, Masaki ; Minato, Kazuo 

Neptunium trichloride of high purity was synthesized by the solid-state reaction of neptunium nitride, which was prepared from the oxide by the carbothermic reduction method, and cadmium chloride in a similar manner as reported for synthesis of AmCl. Lattice parameters of hexagonal NpCl were determined from the X-ray diffraction pattern to be a = 0.7421 0.0006 nm and c = 0.4268 0.0003 nm, which fairly agree with the reported values (a = 0.742 0.001 nm and c = 0.4281 0.0005 nm). Melting temperature of NpCl was measured with about 1 mg of the sample which was hermetically encapsulated in a gold crucible using a differential thermal analyzer with heating and cooling rate of 10 K/min in an argon gas flow (50 mL/min). The melting temperature of NpCl was determined to 1070 3 K, which is close to the recommended value 107530 K, which was derived from the mean value of the melting temperature for UCl(1115K) and that for PuCl (1041 K).