Tri- n-butyl phosphate as an extracting solvent for inorganic nitrates—III The plutonium nitrates

Abstract

Plutonium(III) nitrate is relatively inextractable by tri- n-butyl phosphate (TBP), but plutonium(IV) and plutonyl nitrates are freely extractable. Plutonyl nitrate is, however, less extractable than uranyl nitrate by a factor of about 10. Experiments in which the TBP concentration was varied indicated the formation of Pu(NO 3) 4·2TBP and PuO 2(NO 3) 2·2TBP. In the case of plutonium(IV) nitrate it was shown that the temperature coefficient of extraction is small, that salting-out by sodium nitrate causes a striking increase in extraction, and that uranyl nitrate depresses the extraction. Increase in the plutonium(IV) nitrate concentration may either raise or lower the partition coefficient according to the conditions.