Relativistic bond lengthening of UO ²⁺₂ and UO₂

Summary

Relativistic calculations on UO₂ [1] have shown that relativity leads to substantial bondlengthening in this compound, in contrast to the bond contraction found almost exclusively for other compounds. The bond lengthening isnot caused by the relativistic expansion of the 5f valence AO of U, which is the primary bond forming orbital on U in UO₂. The origin of the bond lengthening can be traced back to the semi-core resp. subvalence character of the U 6p AO. The valence character of 6p shows up in an increasing depopulation of the 6p upon bond shortening, and hence loss of mass-velocity stabilization. The core character of 6p shows up in large off-diagonal mass-velocity matrix elements 〈5p|h _MV|6p〉 which are shown to have an overall bond lengthening effect. The larger expansion in UO₂ than in UO ²⁺₂ is due to destabilization of U levels in UO₂, caused by repulsion of the two additional 5f electrons.

The present analysis corroborates the picture of relativistic bond length effects of Ref. [2].