Negative ion–uranium hexafluoride charge transfer reactions

The flowing afterglow technique has been used to study the process of charge transfer from selected negative ions (F−, Cl−, Br−, I−, SF6−) to UF6. The sole ionic product in all cases was observed to be UF6−. Data analysis was complicated by an unexpected coupling of chemical and diffusive ion loss processes when UF6− product ions were present. The rate coefficients for the charge transfer processes are (k in 10−9 cm3 molecule−1 s−1) F−, 1.3; Cl−, 1.1; Br−, 0.93; I−, 0.77; and SF6−, 0.69. The rate constants agree quite well with the classical Langevin predictions.