Lanthanide/actinide separation is a worldwide challenge for atomic energy and nuclear waste treatment. Separation of americium (Am), a critical actinide element in the nuclear fuel cycle, from lanthanides (Ln) is highly desirable for minimizing the long-term radiotoxicity of nuclear waste, yet it is extremely challenging given the chemical similarity between trivalent Am(III) and Ln(III). Selective oxidation of Am(III) to a higher oxidation state (OS) could facilitate this separation, but so far, it is far from satisfactory for practical application as a result of the unstable nature of Am in a high OS. Herein, we find a novel strategy to generate stable pentavalent Am (Am(V)) through coordination of Am(III) with a diglycolamide ligand and oxidation with Bi(V) species in the presence of an organic solvent. This strategy leads to efficient stabilization of Am(V) and an extraordinarily high separation factor (>104) of Am from Ln through one single contact in solvent extraction, thereby opening a new avenue to study the high-OS chemistry of Am and fulfill the crucial task of Ln/Am separation in the nuclear fuel cycle. The synergistic coordination and oxidation process is found to occur in the organic solvent, and the mechanism has been well elucidated by quantum-theoretical modeling.

Ultra-Efficient Americium/Lanthanide Separation through Oxidation State Control.

This review article summarizes the reported crystallographically determined structures of compounds containing a hydrated metal ion and the reported structures of hydrated metal ions in aqueous solution. A short overview of the methods available to study structures of metal complexes in solution is given.

/pdf/structures-of-hydrated-metal-ions-in-solid-state-and-aqueous-2jpfepln.pdf

Structures of Hydrated Metal Ions in Solid State and Aqueous Solution

There is currently an extensive demand for simple and effective synthetic methods to allow the design and fabrication of robust and flexible chiral materials that can generate strong and switchable circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Herein, biosynthetic light-emitting adhesive materials based upon chiral nematic cellulose nanocrystal-polyelectrolyte complexes with universal high adhesion on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic substrates are reported. Strong and dynamic photoluminescence with highly asymmetric and switchable circular polarization is induced by minute rare earth europium doping without compromising adhesive strength and initial iridescent properties. The photoluminescence can be temporarily quenched with highly volatile acetone vapor and liquid followed by fast recovery after drying with full restoration of initial emission. The unique properties of light-emitting bio-adhesives with universal adhesion, amplified and dynamic photoluminescence, and large and switchable CPL can be utilized for security optical coding, bio-optical memory, hidden communication, and biochemical sensing as wearable stickers, prints, and tattoos to directly adhere to human clothes, gadgets, and skin by using adhesive stickers with bright tailored photoluminescence.

Co-Assembly of Biosynthetic Chiral Nematic Adhesive Materials with Dynamic Polarized Luminescence.

The PUREX (Plutonium, Uranium, Reduction, EXtraction) process is the foundation of all industrial activities that involve the recycling of plutonium and uranium from used nuclear fuel. With over 70...

Electrochemistry of PUREX: R is for reduction and ion transfer

This work investigates the one-electron reduction of Eu(III) to Eu(II) with ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) in cavity microelectrode (CME) systems. OMC materials with and without tetra-n-octyl diglycolamide (TODGA) functionalization were subjected to voltammetric measurements and compared with commercial carbon black Vulcan® XC-72. The electrochemical reduction of solution Eu(III) with unfunctionalized OMC, XC-72, and TODGA-functionalized OMC—both within the electrode matrix and on the electrode surface—is reported. The complexation of Eu(III) by TODGA-functionalized OMC prior to electrode preparation incorporates Eu(III) as part of the bulk electrode matrix. Under these conditions, the high capacitance obscures the Eu(III)/Eu(II) redox couple. A signal emerges above the background (capacitive) currents when 2-octanol is added to the TODGA-functionalized OMC as a wetting agent. In contrast, surface Eu(III)–TODGA complexation, when Eu(III) contacts the electrode surface exclusively after electrode preparation, provides a strong response. The addition of 2-octanol to TODGA reduces the capacitance of the electrode and narrows the Eu(III)/Eu(II) redox peak widths. The desorption by reductive stripping of Eu(II) was demonstrated using a 2-octanol modified TODGA OMC CME, opening the possibility for selective separation of Eu from adjacent trivalent lanthanides.

Electrochemical reduction of europium( iii ) using tetra- n -octyl diglycolamide functionalized ordered mesoporous carbon microelectrodes

In the lanthanide series, Eu3+ is most easily reduced to its divalent state. Reduction of Eu3+ has been studied extensively in aqueous media that are insensitive to reducing conditions. Recently, it has been reported that reduction of Eu3+ is also feasible in aqueous nitrate solutions and that Eu2+ remained sufficiently stable in these media to conduct separation experiments. However, additional fundamental research on the reduction efficiency of Eu3+ and stability of Eu2+ in these media has not been reported yet. In this paper, cyclic voltammetry, magnetic susceptibility measurements, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy were used to gain more insights into the reduction of Eu3+ in aqueous nitrate media. Within the parameters used in this work, near-quantitative reduction of Eu3+ could be achieved within 120 min in highly concentrated nitrate salt solutions, using both chemical and electrochemical reduction techniques. Moreover, Eu2+ was remarkably stable in these solutions, showing just a small percentage of back-oxidation after 5 h in a sealed measurement cell.

/pdf/stability-of-europium-ii-in-aqueous-nitrate-solutions-16eptq64nb.pdf

Stability of europium(ii) in aqueous nitrate solutions.

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Bart Geboes

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Stability of europium(ii) in aqueous nitrate solutions.