Development of New Cationic Exchangers for the Recovery of Uranium (VI) from Concentrated Phosphoric Acid

The extraction of uranium (VI) from 5.3 mol.L-1 phosphoric acid with a series of phosphoric, phosphinic, dithiophosphoric, or dithiophosphinic acid derivatives (0.5 mol.L-1) in mixture with 0.125 mol.L-1 TOPO in Isane IP 185 has been investigated. In the frame of the present work, eight acidic phosphorus and thiophosphorus compounds have been synthesized: bis(1,3-diisobutoxypropan-2-yl) phosphoric acid, bis(1,3-bis-(butylthio)propan-2-yl) phosphoric acid, bis(5,8,12,15-tetraoxanonadecan-10-yl) phosphoric acid, bis(1-butoxyheptan-2-yl) phosphoric acid, bis(undecan-6-yl) phosphoric acid, bis(2-(1,3-dibutoxypropan-2-yloxy)ethyl) phosphoric acid, bis(3-butoxy-2-(butoxymethyl)-2-methylpropyl) phosphinic acid, bis(1,3-dibutoxypropan-2-yl) dithiophosphoric acid. The properties of these molecules in mixtures with TOPO have been compared with those of other extractants such as bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid, bis(2-ethylhexyl) dithiophosphoric acid, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphinic acid, Cyanex (R) 272, and Cyanex (R) 301. The replacement of phosphoric acid-type extractant by their phosphinic homologues dramatically decreases the affinity for uranium (VI) whereas the replacement of the phosphoric and phosphinic acid-type extractants by their dithio homologues affects positively the distribution coefficient of uranium (VI). It also appears that the steric hindrance effect is responsible for a significant decrease of the distribution coefficient of uranium (VI). Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Separation Science and Technology to view the free supplemental file.