Tri- n-butyl phosphate as an extracting solvent for inorganic nitrates—IV Thorium nitrate

Abstract

Thorium nitrate is more readily extracted by tri- n-butyl phosphate (TBP) than are the rare earths, but it is less extractable than plutonium(IV) nitrate by a factor of about 10. It extracts as a di-solvate, Th(NO 3) 4·2TBP, according to solubility measurements and to partition data at varying TBP concentrations. It extracts more readily from slightly acidified sodium nitrate than from nitric acid of similar concentration, but if the pH rises above about 3 the partition coefficients falls again owing to thorium hydrolysis.