Selective Separation of MA(III) from Ln(III) by Highly Stable Silica-Polymer-based N-Donor IsoBu-BTP/SiO₂-P Adsorbent

ABSTRACT

To separate minor actinides (MA) from lanthanides from high-level liquid waste (HLLW), a kind of micro-porous silica-polymer (SiO₂-P) based N-donor isoBu-BTP/SiO₂-P adsorbent was synthesized and characterized. The efficient separation of ²⁴¹Am(III) over Ln(III) lighter than Dy(III) was achieved in both batch and column experiments in pH 2–NaNO₃ medium. The γ-irradiation stability of isoBu-BTP/SiO₂-P was evaluated with the maximum absorption dose reaching to 207 kGy followed by TOC, UV, and UPLC/Q-TOF-MS analysis, which revealed good γ-irradiation stability of isoBu-BTP/SiO₂-P. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism was studied using XPS and EXAFS, which revealed that the interaction between Eu(III) and isoBu-BTP/SiO₂-P mainly happened to the N atoms in isoBu-BTP. In a word, isoBu-BTP/SiO₂-P is a very promising candidate for separating MA(III) from Ln(III) in pH 2–NaNO₃ medium.

KEYWORDS:

• Minor actinides
• BTP
• stability
• XPS
• EXAFS

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number [11705032, 11675102]; Guangxi Natural Science Foundation under Grant number [2017GXNSFBA198175]; and Science and Technology Major Project of Guangxi under Grant number [AA17204100].