The recovery of strontium from acidic medium using novel strontium selective extractant: An experimental and DFT study.

In view of the limited solvent system known for the Sr2+ extraction from acidic media, extraction and recovery of 90Sr from acidic medium using novel Octabenzyloxyoctakis[[[(N,N-diethylamino)carbonyl)]methyl]oxy]calix[8]arene (BOC8A) extractant in nitro alkane medium are presented in this paper. BOC8A and nitro alkanes have been synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR and GC-MS techniques. Solvent composition of 0.01 M BOC8A in nitro octane (NO) has been optimized for substantial amount of extraction of strontium from feed acidity of 3.5-4 M nitric acid, (D3.5-4 M HNO3 = 7.1-7.8). Poor extraction of Pu4+, Ba2+, Na+ and UO22+ and negligible extraction of Am3+, Cs+, Ru3+, Nd3+, Zr2+ and trivalent lanthanides are observed. Ion dissociation mechanism was found to be operative involving an extractable complex having Sr2+, BOC8A and HNO3 in a ratio of 1:1:2. About 99 % of Sr2+ from the loaded solvent was recovered with 0.01 M HNO3. DFT calculations were used to predict the structures of free, protonated BOC8A and its complex with Sr2+. DFT result showed reorientation in conformation of BOC8A due to protonation resulting in the Sr2+ extraction from acidic medium with significantly high interaction energy between Sr2+ and diprotonated form of BOC8A.