The unique physical and chemical properties of room-temperature ionic liquids(RTILs) have recently received increasing attention as solvent alternatives for possible application in the field of nuclear industry, particularly in liquid-liquid separations of radioactive nuclides. We investigated solvent extraction of U(VI) from aqueous solutions into a commonly used ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide([C4mim][NTf2]) using trioctylphosphine oxide(TOPO) as an extractant. The effects of contact time, TOPO concentration, acidity, and nitrate ions on the U(VI) extraction are discussed in detail. The extraction mechanism was proposed based on slope analysis and UV-Vis measurement. The results clearly show that TOPO/[C4mim][NTf2] provides a highly efficient extraction of U(VI) from aqueous solution under near-neutral conditions. When the TOPO concentration was 10 mmol/L, the extraction of 1 mmol/L U(VI) was almost complete(> 97%). Both the extraction efficiency and distribution coefficient were much larger than in conventional organic solvents such as dichloromethane. Slope analysis confirmed that three TOPO molecules in [C4mim][NTf2] bound with one U(VI) ion and one nitrate ion was also involved in the complexation and formed the final extracted species of [UO2(NO3)(TOPO)3]+. Such a complex suggests that extraction occurs by a cation-exchange mode, which was subsequently evidenced by the fact that the concentration of C4mim+ in the aqueous phase increased linearly with the extraction percent of U(VI) recorded by UV-Vis measurement.
To design novel phenanthroline-derived soft ligands for selectively separating minor actinides from lanthanides, four tetradentate phenanthroline-derived heterocyclic ligands(BTPhen, BPyPhen, BPzPhen, and BBizPhen) were constructed and their complexation behaviors with Am(ⅡI) and Eu(ⅡI) were systematically investigated by density functional theory(DFT) coupled with relativistic small-core pseudopotential. In all the 1:1-type species, the metal ion is in the center of the cavity and coordinates with two nitrogen atoms(N1 and N1′) of the phenanthroline skeleton and the other two nitrogen atoms(N2 and N2′) of the auxiliary groups. The bond lengths of Am–N are comparable to or even shorter than those of Eu–N bonds because the ionic radii of Am(ⅡI) are larger than those of Eu(ⅡI). Additionally, the negative ΔΔGAm/Eu value for the reaction of [M(H2O)4-(NO3)3] + L → ML(NO3)3 + 4H2 O indicates that the complexation reaction of Am(ⅡI) is more energetically favorable than that of Eu(ⅡI); this can be considered as an important design criterion to screen phenanthroline-derived ligands for MA(ⅡI) extraction. According to this criterion, the selectivity of tetradentate phenanthroline-derived ligands for separating Am(ⅡI) over Eu(ⅡI) follows the order of BTPhen > BBizPhen > BPyPhen > BPzPhen.
