title: Selective separation of americium from europium using 2,9-bis(triazine)-1,10-phenanthrolines in ionic liquids: a new twist on an old story.
abstract: Bis-triazine phenanthrolines have shown great promise for f-block metal separations, attributable to their highly preorganized structure, nitrogen donors, and more enhanced covalent bonding with actinides over lanthanides. However, their limited solubility in traditional solvents remains a technological bottleneck. Herein we report our recent work using a simple 2,9-bis(triazine)-1,10-phenanthroline (Me-BTPhen) dissolved in an ionic liquid (IL), demonstrating the efficacy of IL extraction systems for the selective separation of americium from europium, achieving separation factors in excess of 7500 and selectively removing up to 99% of the americium. Characterization of the coordination environment was performed using a combination of X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA and Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. abneycw@ornl.gov dais@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Neil J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dehaudt
authors.affiliation: Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. abneycw@ornl.gov dais@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Vyacheslav S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Bryantsev
authors.affiliation: Energy and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. luoh@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Huimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. abneycw@ornl.gov dais@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Carter W
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1809-9577
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Abney
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA and Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. abneycw@ornl.gov dais@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8046-3931
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dai