Study on the Rate and the Products of the Reaction between Uranium Monocarbide and Water

With the use of a flow reactor, the products and the rate of reaction between UC powder and water were studied for the case of liquid water and water vapor under 20–100 mmHg at 80°C and other temperatures. The oxide produced in the reaction with water vapor was determined to be UO₂ by chemical analysis. The reaction rate and the gaseous products were measured by means of a gas Chromatograph.

Neither the rate nor the products showed any marked difference between water and water vapor. This indicates that the two reaction proceed by a similar mechanism. As the temperature was raised further, the evolution of H₂ C₂H₆, C₃H₈, C₃H₆, etc. increased while that of CH₄ decreased.

The rate of the evolution of gaseous products can be expressed in the form R=const. ×thetan where θ is the coverage of water on the carbide. The values of n were found to be 1.0 for CH_4t and 0.53 for H₂. Those for the C₂, C₃ and C₄ components were 1.0 for the high coverage region and less than unity for those of low coverage. This could be attributed to non-uniformity of the carbide surface.