Extraction of Water and Speciation of Trivalent Lanthanides and Americium in Organophosphorus Extractants.

Complexes of the trivalent lanthanides and Am with di-2-ethylhexylphosphoric acid (HDEHP) dissolved in an aliphatic diluent were probed with UV-vis, X-ray absorption fine structure, and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy while the water concentration was determined by Karl Fischer titrations. In particular, our work focuses on the Nd-hypersensitive UV-vis absorbance region to identify the cause of changing absorbance values at 570 and 583 nm in relation to the pseudooctahedral Nd environment when coordinated with three HDEHP dimers. In contrast to recently reported interpretations, we establish that while impurities have an effect on this electronic transition band, a high water content can cause distortion of the pseudooctahedral symmetry of the six-coordinate Nd, resembling the reported spectra of the seven-coordinate Nd compounds.