Extraction Behavior and Separation of Lanthanides with a Diglycol Amic Acid Derivative and a Nitrogen-donor Ligand

Kojiro SHIMOJO1), Hirochika NAGANAWA1), Junji NORO2), Fukiko KUBOTA3) and Masahiro GOTO3)

1) Division of Environment and Radiation Sciences, Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate, Japan Atomic Energy Agency 2) Research Department, NISSAN ARC, LTD. 3) Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering and Center for Future Chemistry, Kyushu University

(Received September 3, 2007) (Accepted October 24, 2007)

The extraction and separation of lanthanides have been investigated using CHON-type extractants, which are composed of only C, H, O, and N atoms. N,N-Dioctyldiglycol amic acid (DODGAA) showed high extraction and separation performances for heavier lanthanides compared with typical CHON-type extractants. On the other hand, N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylenediamine (TPEN) provided an unprecedentedly high selectivity for lighter lanthanides. Furthermore, it was found that the combination of DODGAA and TPEN under suitable conditions enabled the mutual separation of light, middle, and heavy lanthanides.

Anal. Sci., Vol. 23, p.1427, (2007)