Synthesis of Mesoporous Tetragonal ZrO, TiO and Solid Solutions and Effect of Colloidal Silica on Porosity.

Metal oxides possessing a large surface area, pore volume and desirable pore size provide more varieties and active industrial potentials. Nevertheless, it is very challenging to produce crystal metal oxides while keeping satisfactory porosity features, especially for ternary compositions. High temperature is usually needed to produce crystal metal oxides, which readily leads to the collapse of the pore structure.

Capturing ammonium nitrate in a synthetic uranium oxide hydrate phase: revealing the role of ammonium ions and anion inclusions.

Although uranium oxide hydrate (UOH) minerals and synthetic phases have been extensively studied, the role of ammonium ions in the formation of UOH materials is not well understood. In this work, the stabilization of a synthetic UOH phase with ammonium ions and the inclusion of ammonium nitrate were investigated using a range of structural and spectroscopic techniques. Compound (NH)(NO)[(UO)O(OH)] (U-N1) crystallises in the orthorhombic 2 space group, having a layered structure with typical α-UO type layers and interlayer (NH) cations as well as (NO) anions.

Filling the gaps of uranium oxide hydrates with magnesium(II) ions: unique layered structures and the role of additional sodium(I) ions.

Alkaline earth metal ions play an important role in the formation of secondary uranium minerals due to their abundance in the Earth's crust. Although uranium oxide hydrate (UOH) minerals and synthetic phases with calcium, strontium and barium ions have been investigated, their counterparts with magnesium ions are much less studied. In this work, synthetic UOH materials with magnesium ions have been investigated with three new compounds being synthesised and characterised.

Synthesis of hierarchical mesoporous cerium titanate brannerite and uranyl adsorption properties at pH 3.8.

Cerium titanates possessing brannerite structure are produced by employing soft and hard templates sol-gel processing. Powders synthesized with various hard template sizes and template to brannerite weight ratios are composed of nanoscale 'building blocks' with size ∼20-30 nm and characterized on macro-, nano- and atomic scales. These polycrystalline oxide powders exhibit specific surface area up to ∼100 m g, pore volume ∼0.

Thorium(iv) and uranium(vi) compounds of cucurbit[10]uril: from a one-dimensional nanotube to a supramolecular framework.

Cucurbit[10]uril {Q[10]} has the largest portal size and cavity in the series of Q[n] (n = 5-10) molecules. In contrast to its rich host-guest chemistry, its coordination chemistry is underdeveloped with only limited metal ions being investigated so far. In this work, we initiated the study of Q[10] complexes with Th(iv) and U(vi) ions in HCl solutions via a self-assembly approach.