Effective separation of Am(III) and Eu(III) from HNO3 solutions using CyMe4-BTPhen-functionalized silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles

Ashfaq Afsar; Laurence M Harwood; Michael J Hudson; Petr Distler; Jan John

doi:10.1039/c4cc07478e

Effective separation of Am(III) and Eu(III) from HNO3 solutions using CyMe4-BTPhen-functionalized silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles

Chem Commun (Camb). 2014 Dec 11;50(95):15082-5. doi: 10.1039/c4cc07478e.

Authors

Ashfaq Afsar¹, Laurence M Harwood, Michael J Hudson, Petr Distler, Jan John

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemistry, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AD, UK. l.m.harwood@reading.ac.uk.

PMID: 25331990
DOI: 10.1039/c4cc07478e

Abstract

It has been shown that CyMe4-BTPhen-functionalized silica-coated maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are capable of quantitative separation of Am(III) from Eu(III) from HNO3 solutions. These MNPs also show a small but significant selectivity for Am(III) over Cm(III) with a separation factor of around 2 in 4 M HNO3. The water molecule in the cavity of the BTPhen may also play an important part in the selectivity.