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Preferential extraction of hafnium over zirconium with D2EHPA through selective complexation of organic acids

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Abstract

Nuclear grade zirconium and hafnium are important materials in nuclear power plants, which are usually produced with solvent extraction and separation technology. In this paper, the preferential extracting hafnium was successfully achieved by the selective complexation of the selected organic acids. Hydrochloric acid concentration, organic acid concentration, D2EHPA concentration were investigated to explore the optimum extraction conditions. Increasing acidity and extractant concentration was not conducive to the separation of zirconium and hafnium, while organic acid could effectively improve the separation factor, which was verified by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The largest separation factor, 9.936, for hafnium over zirconium was obtained.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21876062) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2017LB005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute for Smart Materials and Engineering, University of Jinan, No. 336, Nanxinzhuang West Road, Jinan, 250022, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Jialin Zhao, Tao Yang, Hao Zhang, Guoxin Sun & Yu Cui

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  1. Jialin Zhao
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  2. Tao Yang
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  3. Hao Zhang
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  5. Yu Cui
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Correspondence to Yu Cui.

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Zhao, J., Yang, T., Zhang, H. et al. Preferential extraction of hafnium over zirconium with D2EHPA through selective complexation of organic acids. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 321, 333–339 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06585-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06585-8

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