Uranium Arsenide, U₃As₄

Uranium Arsenide, U₃As₄, may be obtained by passing hydrogen over a fused mixture of sodium uranous chloride and sodium arsenide. It is a greyish powder which readily burns in the air. Sometimes it is obtained in a pyrophoric condition. An aluminium-containing product results when the aluminothermic process, using an oxide of uranium and arsenious oxide, is employed. The purest arsenide is obtained, in the crystalline form, when a mixture of hydrogen and arsenic vapour is passed over sodium uranium chloride. It is rapidly decomposed by nitric acid.