Single-crystal structures of uranium and neptunium oxychalcogenides AnOQ (An=U, Np; Q=S, Se)

The compounds UOS, UOSe, NpOS, and NpOSe have been synthesized and their structures determined by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The results provide more detailed crystallographic information, including more precise interatomic distances, than earlier determinations from powder diffraction data. These isostructural compounds adopt the PbFCl structure type. Each An atom is surrounded by four O and five Q atoms in a distorted monocapped square-antiprismatic arrangement.