Development of ordered mesoporous carbon nanoparticles for lanthanide separations, The

Abstract

Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) have shown great promise for a variety of applications, including catalysis, electrochemistry, selective sequestration, drug delivery, and separations chemistry. This versatility is based on their high surface area, regular ordered pores, tunable pore size and structure, physical durability and low reactivity, diverse potential surface functionalization, and adaptable synthesis routes. Furthermore, their durability in an oxidizing environment, such as that produced by radioactive decay, and ability to protect internal functional groups make them particularly well-suited to radiochemistry applications. In this work, OMCs have been explored for the selective extraction of lanthanides from solution through the use of surface-attached tropolone and bis-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid functional groups. The ultimate goal of this research is to gain a fundamental understanding of the interaction between material properties and separations behavior to inform development of novel and improved lanthanide extraction methods.