Separation of Am, Cm and lanthanides by solvent extraction with hydrophilic and lipophilic organic ligands

Sasaki, Yuji  ; Kitatsuji, Yoshihiro  ; Tsubata, Yasuhiro   ; Sugo, Yumi; Morita, Yasuji  

The mutual separation of Am, Cm and lanthanides (Ln) by the hydrophilic and lipophilic ligands present in both aqueous and organic phases were studied. The hydrophilic ligands used here are DTPA, malonamide, amicacid, TEDGA and DOODA (C2) and four kinds of extractants, TODGA, TDdDGA, DOODA (C8) and DOODA (C12). DOODA can extract light lanthanides with higher D values into the organic phase, on the other hand DGA shows strong complexing ability with middle and heavy lanthanides in the aqueous phase. The high separation factor, over 1000, of La and Gd can be seen in the extraction using extractant, TDdDGA, and DOODA(C2) as the masking agent. The separation factors of Am/Cm by DOODA(C8, C12) and DGA alone extractants are 1.51-1.94, the values with over 3 can be attained by the proposed conditions in this work.