Who sets the trends?Under ‘Applications and skills’ the syllabus asks for a discussion on the different properties of uranium dioxide, UO2, and uranium hexafluoride, UF6, in terms of structure and bonding. This is fine and necessary as uranium dioxide is used as a nuclear fuel whereas uranium hexafluoride is used for enrichment. Uranium dioxide has a calcite (CaF2) ionic crystalline structure with each uranium atom...