Luminescence properties of tetravalent uranium in aqueous solution

Summary The luminescence spectra of U 4+ in aqueous solutions were observed in the UV-VIS region at ambient and liquid nitrogen temperatures. The excitation spectrum indicates that the luminescence is arising from the deexcitation of a 5 f electron at the 1 S 0 level and no other emissions of U 4+ in aqueous solutions were detected for other f – f transitions. All the luminescence peaks were assigned to the transitions from 1 S 0 to lower 5 f levels. To estimate the luminescence lifetime, luminescence decay curves were measured using time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. At room temperature, the decay curve indicated that the lifetime was shorter than 20 ns. On the other hand, the frozen sample of U 4+ in aqueous solution at liquid nitrogen temperature showed the same emission spectrum as at room temperature and its lifetime was 149 ns in H 2 O system and 198 ns in D 2 O system. The longer lifetime at liquid nitrogen temperature made it possible to measure the spectrum of U 4+ at the concentration as low as 10 -6 M. The difference in the anion species (ClO 4 - , Cl - , SO 4 2- ) affected the structure of the emission spectrum to some extent.