Intermolecular interaction mechanism for ionic liquids based on quaternary phosphonium cations with different symmetries using dielectric and spectroscopic analyses.

This study focuses on two types of phosphonium cation-based ionic liquids (P-ILs) with different alkyl chains: triethylalkylphosphonium (P222R) and tributylalkylphosphonium (P444R) cations. Broadband dielectric spectroscopy showed that the translational motion of the ions accelerated with an increasing number of alkyl chains by coupling with their rotational motion in both P-ILs. Raman spectroscopy revealed that P222R cations, despite dielectric similarities to P444R cations, can form all-trans conformations and cation-rich nanodomains because they have a relatively polar, short alkyl chain moiety with a central P atom and less-polar alkyl chains than those of P444R cations.

Basic Research on Batchwise Multi-stage Extractions Using TODGA for Dy/Nd Separation.

The mutual separation of lanthanides has been studied by multi-stage extraction using an extractant, DGA (diglycolamide) compounds. N,N,N',N'-tetraoctyl-DGA (TODGA) has a high extractability to lanthanides and a relatively high separation factor (SF) between Dy and Nd (SF of over 20) from HNO media. Complete separation with such SF values can be achieved by multi-stage extraction.