A Novel Extraction Chromatography Resin for Trivalent Actinides Using 2,6-bis(5,6-diisobutyl-1,2,4-triazine-3-yl)pyridine

Radiochemical analyses for environmental monitoring or nuclear forensics and safeguards require highly specific and efficient separations of actinides from a variety of sample matrices. Extraction chromatography resins currently employed can exhibit less than ideal performance in separating trivalent actinides from trivalent lanthanides. In attempting to correct at least some of the performance issues, 2,6-di(5,6-diisobutyl-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine (isobutyl-BTP) has been coated onto Amberchrom CG-71 resin. The resulting resin has been characterized for actinide-lanthanide separations using americium(III), curium(III), plutonium(IV), and europium(III). This isobutyl-BTP resin has been shown to extract trivalent actinides with k' values ranging from 4000 to 8000 while only minimally extracting europium(III). Actinides can be easily stripped with dilute HCl, and the resin has been shown to be stable to hydrolysis.