The impact of ionization during electrospray ionization (ESI) on the complexation equilibria between rare-earth cations (Nd3+ and Yb3+) and aminocarboxylate ligands is under investigation.  Ligands include NTA, EDTA, DTPA, and DOTA, which are used as f-element complexants in applications ranging from nuclear fuel recycling to nuclear medicine.  Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, the influence of ESI on cation:ligand systems involving methanol as a co-solvent demonstrates that careful evaluation of the data allows comparison of gas phase speciation with expected solution phase complexation.  ESI-MS may prove to be a valuable supplement to current safeguards techniques within a nuclear reprocessing setting, and it could possibly serve as an effective process control monitoring tool for the production of radiopharmaceuticals.

Impact of electrospray ionization (ESI) on metal: Ligand solution equilibria

248th National Meeting (2014)

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