Extraction of europium (III) and americium (III) from acidic feeds using four extraction chromatography resins containing diglycolamide extractants

Extraction chromatography (XC) is one of the most efficient techniques having advantages of both the solvent extraction and the ion exchange methods. Diglycolamide extractants such as TODGA (N,N,N',N'-tetra-n-octyl diglycolamide) known to have higher Ln (III) uptake as compared to An(III) have been employed in XC resins for their efficient uptake from acidic feeds. In our previous report on the use of TBDGA as the extractant in XC resin showed excellent uptake for Eu(III) and Am(III), so, it was of interest to understand the role of alkyl chain length on the extraction efficiency. Therefore, a series of XC resins containing N,N,N',N'-tetra-n-alkyl diglycolamide ligands with pentyl, hexyl, octyl or decyl alkyl groups (termed as TPDGA, THDGA, TODGA and TDDGA, respectively) were prepared with Chromosorb Was the support and C₄mim. NTf₂ (ionic liquid) as the diluent which has been reported to have a higher uptake based on a favourable extraction mechanism. The ligand and ionic loadings were ca. 23% and 17%, respectively and their presence was ascertained by TGA and FTIR