Selective extraction of lanthanides (La, Nd, Eu and Dy) from uranium-containing acidic solution utilizing bisdiglycolamide ligand

A novel extraction process utilizing THEE-BisDGA ligand has been developed for the rapid and efficient recovery of trivalent lanthanide elements (La, Nd, Eu, and Dy) from uranium-containing acidic systems. The process rapidly achieves equilibrium within just 2 min and exhibits high distribution ratios. Notably, its extraction efficiency shows a positive correlation with the atomic number of the lanthanides. Significantly, the ligand demonstrates exceptional selectivity by excluding U(VI) extraction, thus enabling the targeted recovery of lanthanides. Back-extraction experiments confirm that 0.01 M HNO3 can quantitatively strip lanthanides in three steps, highlighting its potential for industrial-scale separation and purification of valuable lanthanides. Moreover, density functional theory(DFT) calculations have confirmed that THEE-BisDGA exhibits superior selectivity for Ln(III) over U(VI), further reinforcing its effectiveness and applicability in advanced separation technologies.