Plutonium(IV) nitrate
Plutonium nitrate is an inorganic compound, a salt of plutonium and nitric acid with the chemical formula Pu4. The compound dissolves in water and forms crystalline hydrates as dark green crystals.
Synthesis
Crystals of dark green to black-green composition Pu4•5H2O precipitate with a slow evaporation of a solution of a plutonium compound in nitric acid.Physical properties
Plutonium nitrate forms a crystalline hydrate of the composition Pu4•5H2O—dark green crystals of rhombic crystal structure, space group F dd2, cell parameters: a = 1.114 nm, b = 2.258 nm, c = 1.051 nm, Z = 8.Crystalline hydrate melts in its own crystallization water at 95–100 °C.
It dissolves well in nitric acid and water. Also dissolves in acetone and ether.
Chemical properties
When heated to 150–180 °C, it decomposes with autooxidation to plutonium with the formation of plutonyl nitrate.Upon evaporation of concentrated nitric acid solutions of plutonium nitrate and alkali metal nitrates, double nitrates of the composition M2 are formed, where M = Cs+, Rb+, K+, Tl+, NH4+, analogous to ceric ammonium nitrate.