Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of new transition-metal and f-block fluorides and iodates

Hydrothermal synthetic methods are used to produce a large number of novel inorganic compounds. The versatility of this synthetic method is demonstrated by the production of many families of new materials including transition-metal and lanthanide fluorides and iodates, as well as mixed-metal uranyl and neptunyl(V) iodates. Single crystal X-ray diffraction is utilized to elucidate the structures of these new compounds and other characterization tools such as IR, Raman, and UV-vis spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and second-harmonic generation (SHG) measurements are used to determine structure-property relationships. Potential technologically relevant uses for some materials are studied; ion-exchange in the cerium fluoride system and SHG attributes of many polar iodates and periodates are discussed.; Several rare examples of polar structures containing an actinyl unit can be prepared by complexation with iodate. Studies based on the transuranic element neptunium, including the production of the non-centrosymmetric neptunyl(V) iodate, NpO₂(IO₃) are included. In addition, the development of the bond valence sum (BVS) parameter for the Np-O bond will be discussed and the BVS will be used to aid in an oxidation state assignment for Np.