A Critical Comment on the Previous Models for F-Atom Transfer Reaction from UF_6 to UF_5

摘要

Since the first paper by Grigor'ev et al., continued experimental studies have been reported by our group at RIKEN and Yato's group on the reaction ~(235)UF_5(s) +~(238)UF_6(g)←→~(235)UF_6(g) +~(238)UF_5(s). (1) This reaction is important because it deteriorates the enrichment of ~(235)U in the product (UF_5) in the molecular laser isotope separation of uranium. Since the transfer of the fluorine atom from ~(238)UF_6 to ~(235)UF_5 converts ~(235)UF_5 to ~(235)UF_6, this reaction behaves as if ~(235)U and ~(238)U are exchanged between UF_6 and UF_5. This is why this reaction has sometimes been called an isotope exchange reaction.