Aggregation behaviour of solvent modifiers for the extraction of cesium from caustic media

L. H. Delmau, P. V. Bonnesen, A. W. Herlinger, R. Chiarizia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fluorinated alcohols are being used as diluent modifiers for the selective extraction of cesium from caustic media by calixarene-crown ethers. Previous work has established the equilibria taking place in solution during cesium extraction and the stoichiometry of the complexes formed in the organic phase, but the aggregation behaviour of the modifiers remains to be precisely understood. Therefore, vapour pressure osmometry experiments were carried out to gain further insight. The aggregation state of a variety of fluorinated and non-fluorinated alkylphenoxy alcohols and 1-decanol in n-heptane, was determined at 25°C. These alcohols were found to form aggregates containing between three and five (most frequently four) molecules. Introduction of these independently investigated aggregation equilibria for the solvent modifiers in the data modeling improved the ability of our extraction model to correctly predict metal distribution ratios.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)145-169
Number of pages25
JournalSolvent Extraction and Ion Exchange
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2005

Funding

Work performed under the auspices of the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U. S. Department of Energy, under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725 with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed and operated by UT-Battelle, LLC., and under contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38, for the part performed at Argonne National Laboratory.

Keywords

  • Aggregation
  • Calixarene crown ethers
  • Fluorinated solvent modifiers
  • Osmometry

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