Research using (poly)aminopolycarboxylate (APC) ligands to achieve trivalent actinide / lanthanide separation has expanded significantly due to the development of derivative TALSPEAK solvent extraction processes that either simplify organic phase speciation (i.e. TALSQueak) or streamline processing steps through combining neutral and organic phase extractants (i.e. TRUSPEAK or ALSEP). Courtesy their applications in over fifty years of actinide separation science, the best defined interactions of actinides with soft donors in aqueous solutions involve APC ligands. These interactions are usually defined in terms of stability constants, especially for the trans-americium actinides, with minimal dialogue regarding enthalpic and entropic contributions to the binding. An argument is presented that expansion of APC thermodynamic data with heavier actinides could be instructive regarding fundamental f-element science. The benefit of producing lanthanide-normalized linear free energy diagrams, modeling previous actinide separations and review of actinide/N-donor enthalpic binding contributions is considered.

Actinide interactions with aminopolycarboxyates: Heavy element curiosities

249th National Meeting (2015)

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