Abstract
• First report on uranium compound (oxide, yellow cake) dissolution in halide free DES. • Novel strategy of one pot, single step DES preparation and U compound dissolution. • First report on SC CO 2 extraction of uranium from DES by online chelation. • Electrochemical and UV-Vis spectrophotometric insight into uranium redox speciation. Halide anion free hydrophilic Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) based on choline dihydrogen citrate and urea (1:2 mol ratio) was prepared and successfully employed for dissolution of uranium compounds. Dissolution study was carried out with oxides viz. UO 2 , UO 3 and crude yellow cakes viz. magnesium diuranate, sodium diuranate. Novel route of in-situ, single step eutectic solvent preparation and U compound dissolution was found to be promising in terms of better dissolution efficiency and process simplification. The resultant systems were probed with electrochemistry and UV–Vis spectrophotometry to get an insight about the uranium species. In all the four systems prepared by in-situ mode, stabilization of uranium in U(VI) oxidation state in the form of oxo species was indicated. This halide anion free eutectic system was amenable to be used in SC CO 2 extraction set-up. SC CO 2 extraction of uranium dissolved in eutectic solvent was found to be influenced by various extraction conditions viz. pressure, temperature, static and dynamic time. Uranium extraction efficiency of upto 65% for oxide system was achievable by SC CO 2 modified with TTA.
Published Version
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