Thermal conductivity of U3O8 from 300 to 1100 K

The thermal conductivity of orthorhombic α-U3O8 has been measured in air from 300 to 1100 K using an axial heat flow comparative set-up. The results show that the conductivity decreases monotonically with increasing temperature. The observed conductivity can be explained in terms of the phonon-defects and phonon–phonon interaction processes. It is also shown that the intrinsic thermal resistivity can be quantitatively explained by the modified Leibfried–Schlomann (LS) equation proposed by G.A. Slack (in: H. Ehrenreich, F. Seitz, D. Turnbull (Eds.), Solid State Physics, vol. 34, Academic Press, New York, 1979, p. 1).