Claims
- 1. A separation medium comprising a diglycolamide extractant corresponding in structure to Formula I dispersed onto an inert support,
- 2. The separation medium according to claim 1 wherein said inert support is porous.
- 3. The separation medium according to claim 2 wherein said porous, inert support is a resin.
- 4. The separation medium according to claim 3 wherein said resin is macroreticular.
- 5. The separation medium according to claim 2 wherein said inert, porous support is silica.
- 6. The separation medium according to claim 1 wherein said tetra-substituted diglycolamide extractant comprises about 3 to about 50 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium.
- 7. The separation medium according to claim 1 wherein R1+R2+R3+R4 contains about 16 to about 40 carbon atoms.
- 8. A separation medium comprising a diglycolamide extractant corresponding in structure to Formula I dispersed onto a porous inert resin support, said diglycolamide comprising about 5 to about 50 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium,
- 9. The separation medium according to claim 8 wherein each of R1, R2, R3 and R4 is a hydrocarbyl group.
- 10. The separation medium according to claim 8 wherein said diglycolamide extractant is present dissolved in an organic diluent having a boiling point of about 170 degrees to about 220 degrees C. at atmospheric pressure.
- 11. The separation medium according to claim 10 wherein said diglycolamide extractant is present at about 0.1 to about 1.5 molar.
- 12. The separation medium according to claim 8 wherein said separation medium is present as free flowing particles.
- 13. The separation medium according to claim 8 wherein said diglycolamide extractant is present at about 10 to about 40 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium.
- 14. A separation medium comprising a diglycolamide extractant corresponding in structure to Formula I dispersed onto a porous inert resin support, said diglycolamide comprising about 5 to about 50 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium, said separation medium being present as free flowing particles,
- 15. The separation medium according to claim 14 wherein each of R1, R2, R3 and R4 is an n-octyl group or a 2-ethylhexyl group.
- 16. A method for separating a preselected multivalent cation having a crystal ionic radius of about 0.8 to about 1.2 {dot over (A)}ngstroms (Å) from an aqueous sample comprising the steps of:
(a) contacting a separation medium of claim 1 with an aqueous sample containing an acid or salting out amount of one or more acids or salting out agents for a neutral extractant and dissolved multivalent cations, including said predetermined multivalent cation; (b) maintaining said contact for a time period sufficient for the predetermined multivalent cations to be extracted from the sample solution to the separation medium to form a solid phase loaded separation medium and a liquid phase multivalent cation-depleted sample; and (c) separating said solid and liquid phases.
- 17. The method according to claim 16 wherein said multivalent cations are pseudo-lanthanide, prelanthanide, lanthanide, preactinide or actinide cations.
- 18. The method according to claim 17 wherein said preactinide or pseudo-lanthanide multivalent cation is an actinium or yttrium cation.
- 19. The method according to claim 16 wherein said multivalent cations are eluted by contacting said loaded separation medium with water or dilute hydrochloric or nitric acid.
- 20. The method according to claim 16 wherein said contacting of step (a) is carried out in a chromatographic separation column by passing said aqueous acidic sample solution through a chromatographic separation column containing said separation medium.
- 21. The method according to claim 16 wherein actinium or yttrium cations are loaded on said separation medium and are eluted from said loaded separation medium by passing dilute hydrochloric acid through the loaded separation medium in a separation column.
- 22. The method according to claim 16 wherein said separation medium comprises a diglycolamide extractant corresponding in structure to Formula I dispersed onto a porous inert resin support, said diglycolamide comprising about 10 to about 40 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium,
- 23. The method according to claim 16 wherein said inert, porous support is silica.
- 24. The method according to claim 16 wherein each of R1, R2, R3 and R4 is a hydrocarbyl group.
- 25. A method for separating actinium or yttrium cations from an aqueous sample comprising the steps of:
(a) passing an acidic aqueous sample containing dissolved actinium or yttrium cations into a separation apparatus comprising a separation vessel that contains separation medium to contact said separation medium with said aqueous acidic sample solution, said separation medium comprising N,N,N′,N′-tetra-n-octyl diglycolamide or N,N,N′,N′-tetra-(2-ethylhexyl) diglycolamide dispersed onto an inert, porous, particulate resin support, said separation medium being free-flowing when dry; (b) maintaining said contact for a time period sufficient for the actinium or yttrium cations to be extracted from the sample solution to the separation medium to form a solid phase loaded separation medium and a liquid phase alkaline earth cation-depleted sample; (c) separating said solid and liquid phases; and (d) eluting said actinium or yttrium cations from said loaded separation medium by passing an aqueous dilute hydrochloric acid solution through the loaded separation medium in said separation apparatus.
- 26. The method according to claim 25 wherein said N,N,N′,N′-tetra-n-octyl diglycolamide or the N,N,N′,N′-tetra-(2-ethylhexyl) diglycolamide comprises about 10 to about 40 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium.
- 27. An apparatus for separating pseudo-lanthanide, prelanthanide, lanthanide, preactinide or actinide cations from an acidic aqueous sample that comprises:
a vessel having an inlet, an outlet and separation medium in a separation medium-containing region wherein the separation medium is supported and contained within the separation medium-containing region; said separation medium comprising a diglycolamide extractant corresponding in structure to Formula I dispersed onto an inert, porous support, 7wherein R1, R2, R3 and R4 are the same or different and are hydrido or hydrocarbyl groups such that R1+R2+R3+R4 contains about 14 to about 56 carbon atoms.
- 28. The separation apparatus according to claim 27 wherein said vessel includes a first flow-permitting support positioned between the outlet and the medium-containing region.
- 29. The separation apparatus according to claim 28 wherein said vessel includes a second flow-permitting support positioned between the inlet and the medium-containing region.
- 30. The separation apparatus according to claim 27 wherein said inlet and outlet are separated from each other.
- 31. The separation apparatus according to claim 30 wherein said inlet and outlet are at opposite ends of the apparatus.
- 32. The separation apparatus according to claim 27 wherein said separation medium comprises N,N,N′,N′-tetra-n-octyl diglycolamide or N,N,N′,N′-tetra-(2-ethylhexyl) diglycolamide dispersed onto an inert macroreticular resin support.
- 33. The separation apparatus according to claim 32 wherein said N,N,N′,N′-tetraoctyl diglycolamide or N,N,N′,N′-tetra-(2-ethylhexyl) diglycolamide comprises-about 5 to about 50 weight percent of the total dry weight of the separation medium.
- 34. The separation apparatus according to claim 27 wherein said diglycolamide extractant is dissolved in an organic diluent having a boiling point of about 170 degrees to about 220 degrees C at atmospheric pressure.
- 35. N,N,N′,N′-tetra-(2-ethylhexyl) diglycolamide.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10/261,031 filed Sep. 30, 2002.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10261031 |
Sep 2002 |
US |
Child |
10351717 |
Jan 2003 |
US |