REFINEMENT OF THE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF RUTHERFORDINE

Rutherfordine, UO{sub 2}CO{sub 3} is orthorhombic, a 4.840(1), b 9.273(2), c 4.298(1) Angstroms, V192.90(7) Angstroms{sup 3}, space group lmm2,Z=2. The structure was refined to an R index of 2.2% on the basis of 306 unique data [|F{sub o}|/{sigma}(|F{sub o}|)>5] measured with MoK{alpha} X-radiation on a single-crystal diffractometer. The structure consists of neutral sheets of edge- and corner-sharing (UO{sub 8}) hexagonal bipyramids and (CO{sub 3}) triangles, as originally proposed by Christ et al. (1955); our refinement, however shows that (CO{sub 3}) groups in alternate layers have the same orientation, not opposite orientations as originally reported. The refined value of the U-O (uranyl) distance is strongly affected by the details of the absorption correction, ranging from 1.71 to 1.80 Angstroms as a function of the plate-glancing angle used in an empirical psi-scan absorption correction and as a function of the type of weighting scheme used in the refinement. The Gaussian-quadrature method of integration also shows similar problems, but they are less extreme. The preferred value for the U-O (uranyl) distance in rutherfordine is {approx}1.745 Angstroms; as rutherfordine contains no H atoms, the O(uranyl) atom is [1]-coordinated, and should have the shortest U-O(uranyl) distance stereochemically possible. The current work suggests that U-O(uranyl) valuesmore » less than 1.745 Angstrom reported in other studies are adversely affected by less-than-optimum absorption corrections.« less