Refinement of the crystal structure of UOs2 from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data.

Single crystals of uranium diosmium, UOs2, were obtained during an investigation of the uranium-osmium binary system by an inter-action of uranium metal with osmium metal in an arc furnace and subsequent annealing. The refinement of the crystal structure of UO2 was carried out for the first time using single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. In contrast to previous structure reports based on powder diffraction data, the U and Os atoms were refined with all Uij terms of the displacement parameters considered. UOs2 adopts the MgCu2 structure type.