Extraction mechanism of lanthanide ions into silica-based microparticles studied by single microparticle manipulation and microspectroscopy

Otaka, Toshiki*; Sato, Tatsumi*; Ono, Shimpei; Nagoshi, Kohei; Abe, Ryoji*; Arai, Tsuyoshi*; Watanabe, So  ; Sano, Yuichi   ; Takeuchi, Masayuki ; Nakatani, Kiyoharu*

Single porous silica microparticles coated with styrene-divinylbenzene polymer (SDB) impregnated with octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO) were injected into an aqueous 3 mol/L nitric acid solution containing trivalent lanthanide (Ln(III)), as a high-level liquid waste model, using the microcapillary manipulation-injection technique; and the extraction rate of Ln(III), as an Ln(III)-CMPO complex, into the single microparticles was measured by luminescence microspectroscopy. The extraction rate significantly depended on the Ln(III), CMPO, or NO concentration, and was analyzed in terms of diffusion in the pores of the microparticles and complex formation of Ln(III). The results indicated that the rate-determining step in Ln(III) extraction was the diffusion in the pore solution of the microparticles.