The descriptive chemistry of alkali thorium and hafnium compounds has been neglected in the last several decades but may be poised to receive new interest particularly because of the possible uses of thorium as a fuel source and hafnium as a control source in safer and more efficient nuclear reactors.  We have explored the hydrothermal phase space in thorium fluoride and hafnium fluoride systems and synthesized single crystals of numerous novel fluorides.  These systems exhibit great sensitivity toward both size and concentrations of the alkali metal in addition to experimental conditions such as temperature, pressure and reaction time. Interestingly, the descriptive and structural chemistries in the alkali hafnium fluoride systems differ greatly from the alkali thorium fluoride systems while showing no less structural variety.  Over 20 new alkali thorium and hafnium fluorides will be introduced and briefly discussed to contrast these differences and describe their rich chemistry.

Hydrothermal chemistry and crystal structures of alkali thorium and hafnium fluorides

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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