Structure of ThF4 from room temperature to 15K
We have investigated the crystal structure of the ThF4 compound prepared in our laboratory from XRD data.ThF4 crystallizes in the monoclinic system (C2/c). In this structure there are 2 positions for the Th atoms and 7 positions for the F atoms.Th atoms are 8-fold coordinated and their polyhedron are corner-shared to one another by bridging fluorides. High resolution 19F NMR experiments have been performed on ThF4 at our institute but so far the interpretations of our NMR data were not successful due to a lack of accuracy of the fluoride atomic positions determined from XRD data.Because Th is a heavy element, the sensitivity on the Fluoride positions will be greatly enhanced by the use of neutrons.Besides it was reported that the volume of the isostructural compound UF4 expands on cooling.The first goal of this experiment is to determine the atomic position of the F atoms at RT.The second goal is to follow the thermal expansion of the material down to 15 K and to determine the displacement of the F atoms as a function of the temperature.This will reveal subsequently the mechanisms associated with the thermal expansion.
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RAISON Philippe; BENES Ondrej; CAPELLI Elisa; KONINGS Rudy; MARTEL Laura and SUARD Emmanuelle. (2015). Structure of ThF4 from room temperature to 15K. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.5-21-1100