Actinide ions

Many oxidation states of the actinides are poorly stable or stable only under certain conditions. Great care must thus be taken in preparing samples for relaxometry studies. Working under the same chemical conditions with different actinides in the same oxidation state is sometimes impossible. Plutonium is particularly noteworthy because it is the only element in the Mendeleev table that can exist simultaneously in solution in four different oxidation states. This unusual situation stems from the fact that the ions and PuO have a tendency to undergo dismuta- 

Plutonium solutions are also slowly reduced under the action of the a radiations produced by the isotopes Pu or °Pu (11). Finally, PuOl is reduced by some organic ligands (13). 

Since this involves a lot of difficulties, the reader will not be surprised that there are only a limited number of studies devoted to the relaxation 

A few simple Me actinide ions will be considered here, the most interesting one being Cm, the analog of Gd . These two ions feature a 

Unlike the lanthanides, the actinides U, Np, Pu, and Am have a tendency to form linear actinyl dioxo cations with formula MeO and/or Me02. All these ions are paramagnetic except UO and they all have a non-spherical distribution of their unpaired electronic spins. Hence their electronic relaxation rates are expected to be very fast and their relaxivities, quite low. However, two ions, namely NpO and PuOl , stand out because of their unusual relaxation properties. This chapter will be essentially devoted to these ions that are both 5/. Some comments will be included later about UOi (5/°) and NpOi (5/ ). One should note here that there is some confusion in the literature about the nomenclature of the actinyl cations. The yl ending of plutonyl is often used indiscriminately for PuO and PuOl and the name neptunyl is applied to both NpO and NpOi. For instance, SciFinder Scholar makes no difference between yl compounds in different oxidation states. Here, the names neptunyl and plutonyl designate two ions of the same 5f electronic structure but of different electric charge and 

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Actinide ions of the 111, IV, and VI oxidation states can be adsorbed by cation-exchange resins and, in general, can be desorbed by elution with chloride, nitrate, citrate, lactate, a-hydroxyisobutyrate, ethylenediaminetetraacetate, and other anions (11,12). 

The actinide elements exhibit uniformity in ionic types. In acidic aqueous solution, there are four types of cations, and these and their colors are hsted in Table 5 (12—14,17). The open spaces indicate that the corresponding oxidation states do not exist in aqueous solution. The wide variety of colors exhibited by actinide ions is characteristic of transition series of elements. In general, protactinium(V) polymerizes and precipitates readily in aqueous solution and it seems unlikely that ionic forms ate present in such solutions. 

Fig. 5a. Standard (or formal) reduction potentials of actinium and the actinide ions in acidic (pH 0) and basic (pH 14) aqueous solutions (values are in volts...

Table 6 presents a summary of the oxidation—reduction characteristics of actinide ions (12—14,17,20). The disproportionation reactions of UO2, Pu , PUO2, and AmO are very compHcated and have been studied extensively. In the case of plutonium, the situation is especially complex four oxidation states of plutonium [(111), (IV), (V), and (VI) ] can exist together ia aqueous solution ia equiUbrium with each other at appreciable concentrations. 

Table 6. Stability of Actinide Ions in Aqueous Solution...

Actinide ions form complex ions with a large number of organic substances (12). Their extractabiUty by these substances varies from element to element and depends markedly on oxidation state. A number of important separation procedures are based on this property. Solvents that behave in this way are thbutyl phosphate, diethyl ether [60-29-7J, ketones such as diisopropyl ketone [565-80-5] or methyl isobutyl ketone [108-10-17, and several glycol ether type solvents such as diethyl CeUosolve [629-14-1] (ethylene glycol diethyl ether) or dibutyl Carbitol [112-73-2] (diethylene glycol dibutyl ether). 

A number of organic compounds, eg, acetylacetone [123-54-6] and cupferron [135-20-6] form compounds with aqueous actinide ions (IV state for reagents mentioned) that can be extracted from aqueous solution by organic solvents (12). The chelate complexes are especially noteworthy and, among these, the ones formed with diketones, such as 3-(2-thiophenoyl)-l,l,l-trifluoroacetone [326-91-0] (C4H2SCOCH2COCF2), are of importance in separation procedures for plutonium. 

Solid Compounds. The tripositive actinide ions resemble tripositive lanthanide ions in their precipitation reactions (13,14,17,20,22). Tetrapositive actinide ions are similar in this respect to Ce . Thus the duorides and oxalates are insoluble in acid solution, and the nitrates, sulfates, perchlorates, and sulfides are all soluble. The tetrapositive actinide ions form insoluble iodates and various substituted arsenates even in rather strongly acid solution. The MO2 actinide ions can be precipitated as the potassium salt from strong carbonate solutions. In solutions containing a high concentration of sodium and acetate ions, the actinide ions form the insoluble crystalline salt NaM02(02CCH2)3. The hydroxides of all four ionic types are insoluble ... 

In general, the absorption bands of the actinide ions are some ten times more intense than those of the lanthanide ions. Fluorescence, for example, is observed in the trichlorides of uranium, neptunium, americium, and curium, diluted with lanthanum chloride (15). 

The alkaline and rare-earth metals, and positive actinide ions, generally have greater affinity for —0 groups as electron donors. Many transition metals complex preferentially with enoHc —0 and some nitrogen functions. PolarizabiUty of the donor atoms correlates with stabiUty of complexes of the heavier transition metals and the more noble metal ions. 

Figure 31.5 Volt-equivalent versus oxidation state for actinide ions.

In view of the magnitude of crystal-field effects it is not surprising that the spectra of actinide ions are sensitive to the latter s environment and, in contrast to the lanthanides, may change drastically from one compound to another. Unfortunately, because of the complexity of the spectra and the low symmetry of many of the complexes, spectra are not easily used as a means of deducing stereochemistry except when used as fingerprints for comparison with spectra of previously characterized compounds. However, the dependence on ligand concentration of the positions and intensities, especially of the charge-transfer bands, can profitably be used to estimate stability constants. 

That magnetic measurements often raise more problems than they solve, is demonstrated for the indicated compound. We prepared a series of [ (C2H5N] i,An(NSC) e compounds (An = Th, U, Np, Pu) with cubic coordination of the actinide ion. We derived a consistent interpretation of the magnetic and optical properties of the uranium and the neptunium compounds (6 ). In the case of Pu we expect an isolated T1 ground state and a first excited state at about 728 cm-1. To our surprise we found a magnetic ground state much more pronounced than in the case of the hexachloro-complex, Fig. 4. 

Utilizing this description of silicate glass formation, we suggest models to explain the incorporation of 4+ and 6+ actinide ions in sodium disilicate glass. During cooldown,... 

Table VII. Crystal-Field Parameters for Hexahalide 5f -Actinide Ions.

In contrast to the situation observed in the trivalent lanthanide and actinide sulfates, the enthalpies and entropies of complexation for the 1 1 complexes are not constant across this series of tetravalent actinide sulfates. In order to compare these results, the thermodynamic parameters for the reaction between the tetravalent actinide ions and HSOIJ were corrected for the ionization of HSOi as was done above in the discussion of the trivalent complexes. The corrected results are tabulated in Table V. The enthalpies are found to vary from +9.8 to+41.7 kj/m and the entropies from +101 to +213 J/m°K. Both the enthalpy and entropy increase from ll1 "1" to Pu1 with the ThSOfj parameters being similar to those of NpS0 +. Complex stability is derived from a very favorable entropy contribution implying (not surprisingly) that these complexes are inner sphere in nature. 

With growing interest in the chemical behaviour of actinide ions in the environment (1), the complexation of these ions with carbonate anions has been recently attracting particular attention (2-10) due to the ubiquitous presence of carbonate ions in nature (11, 12) and their pronounced tendency to form complexes with heavy metal ions (7, 10-14). In spite of the carbonate complexation of actinides being considered important chemical reactions for understanding the chemistry of actinides in natural fluids, not many experiments have been devoted up to now to the quantitative study of the subject, though numerous qualitative observations are discussed in the literature. Although there are a few papers reporting the formation constants of carbonate complexes... 

Step (2.3), and AS, are 1.52 kcal.mole and —37.3 cal.deg . mole , respectively. It is noteworthy that the following reduction reactions of the analogous M02 actinide ions show a similar first-order hydrogen-ion dependence (NpOi- +Fe + ) , (Np02-"- -Np + ) , (Pu02++Pu02 ") and (U02 "-l-In Table 1 the activation parameters of the V(V)-t-Fe(II) reaction are... 

Horwitz EP, Chiarizia R, Dietz ML, Diamond H, Nelson DM (1993a) Separation and preconcentration of actinides from acidic media by extraction chromatography. Anal Chim Acta 281 361-372 Horwitz EP, Chiarizia, R., Diamond H, Gatrone RC, Alexandratos SD, Trochimzuk AQ, Crick DW (1993b) Uptake of metal ions by a new chelating ion exchange resin. 1. Acid dependencies of actinide ions. Solvent Extr Ion Exch 11 943-966... 

Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation Studies on Actinide Ions and Models of Actinide Complexes Jean F Desreux... 

The lanthanide and actinide ions react with oxygen donor molecules. Recently, four selected lanthanide and actinide ions have been reacted with several sources of oxygen including 02. The formation of [MO]+ and [M02]+ ions were observed by the reactions of Ce+, Nd+, Th+, and U+ with 02. All reactions produced [MO]+ but [MOH]+ was a common minor product and [Th02]+ and [U02]+ ions were also obtained by the reaction of M+ with 02 (101). 

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