The difficulty of separating lanthanides and actinides is a long-standing and important chemistry problem related to the development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles. Dithiophosphinate ligands (S2PR2-) have been shown to be selective in their binding to actinides and lanthanides. However, the f-element coordination chemistry with dithiophosphinate ligands has not been widely investigated. This research focuses on advancing understanding of f-element interactions with dithiophosphinates, highlighting how subtle differences in steric crowding create major changes in the lanthanide coordination number and the charge of the resultant species. This research provides an approach to the synthesis of dithiophosphinate-lanthanide complexes, and has produced full characterization of these complexes and an analysis of them using X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the sulfur K-edge. The results are presented in terms of correlating electronic structure and bonding with extractant effectiveness. This study provides new directions for lanthanide/actinide separations and offers opportunity for future innovation in radioanalytical separations.

Dithiophosphinates as an approach to the separation of actinides and lanthanides

245th National Meeting (2013)

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