[2B12-14] Aqueous Separation

[2B12] Mutual Separation of Lanthanides by Stimuli-Responsive Zwitterionic Polymer Brushes

*Tommy Suhartono Wijaya Tan¹, Naokazu Idota¹, Takehiko Tsukahara¹ (1. Tokyo Tech)

Keywords:Lanthanide, Zwitterion, Polymer Brush, Separation

As the partitioning of radioactive elements from high level liquid wastes (HLLW) is one of the most crucial issues for the advanced nuclear fuel cycle, various separation methods based on solvent extraction and chromatography have been developed, and their superior separation abilities have been proven. To overcome the disadvantages of having time-consuming operations and large amount of secondary wastes production, this study aims to develop a facile, safe, and green stimuli-responsive adsorption-desorption method. A sulfo-betaine typed zwitterion polymer grafted onto porous silica, P-SiO2-poly(DMAPS) brush, was successfully fabricated and characterized. The polymer’s mutual separation on Ln(III) experiment was demonstrated in various methods and evaluated by various analytical techniques. The results indicate that the adsorption of Ln ions was due to electrostatic interaction between charges, and the polymer brush shows different affinity to Ln species in aqueous solution.