Extraction of lanthanide/actinide with N,N'-Dimethyl-N,N'-dibutyltetradecylmalonic diamide (DMDBTDMA)

It is known that a diamide extractant has a good extractability for the trivalent actinides and lanthanides elements. The amide is also advantageous for the treatment of radioactive waste, because diamide contains only C, H, O, N atoms and no phosphorus atoms, so that the spent solvent is completely incinerable and produces limited amounts of secondary waste combustion. Furthermore, the radiolytic stabilities of malonic acid diamides are sufficient enough for use in radioactive waste treatment and diamide is easy to synthesize. The malonamide, DMDBTDMA (N,N'-dimethyl dibutyl tetradecyl malonamide, (C4H9(CH3)NCO)2 CHC14H29) has shown very promising extraction properties. In this paper, the extraction behaviours of the actinides (Am, Np) and lanthanides (Eu, Nd, La) elements by DMDBTDMA dissolved in dodecane were investigated