1,10-phenanthroline carboxamide ligands for lanthanide separation; Diluent effect

Simonnet, M.   ; Kobayashi, Toru ; Suzuki, Shinichi; Yaita, Tsuyoshi

Efficient separation of rare-earth elements has recently been under a renewed interest. One of the most common elemental separation method is liquid-liquid extraction, for which the state of the art is wide due to the similarities with the studies on actinides separation from lanthanides. Therefore, many different extractants can be found in literature, among which 1,10-phenanthroline-based ligands have shown a strong ability for the extraction of trivalent elements. In this study, we focused on 1,10-phenanthroline carboxamide compounds, because they can selectively extract one lanthanide from the series, with the nature of this lanthanide dependent on the extractant structure. Some compounds were tested in different media, and it was found that the nature of the diluent and the composition of the aqueous feed also yield to a maximum shift among the lanthanide series. This study thus aims at emphasizing diluent effect on lanthanide extraction by 1,10-phenanthroline carboxamide ligands.