Selective extraction of trivalent actinides from lanthanides with dithiophosphinic acids and tributylphosphate

A variety of chemical systems have been developed to separate trivalent actinides from lanthanides based on the slightly stronger complexation of the trivalent actinides with ligands that contain soft donor atoms. The greater stability of the actinide complexes in these systems has often been attributed to a slightly greater covalent bonding component for the actinide ions relative to the lanthanide ions. The authors have investigated several synergistic extraction systems that use ligands with a combination of oxygen and sulfur donor atoms that achieve a good group separation of the trivalent actinides and lanthanides. For example, the combination of dicyclohexyldithiophosphinic acid and tributylphosphate has shown separation factors of up to 800 for americium over europium in a single extraction stage. Such systems could find application in advanced partitioning schemes for nuclear waste