Optimization of Polymer Phase of the Inorganic-organic Composite Carrier of Extractant Impregnated Adsorbents used in the Extraction Chromatography for MA(III) Separation and Recovery

In this study, we have investigated the optimal structure of the extractant-impregnated adsorbent and the repeatability of the proposed separation flowsheet to establish an efficient MA(III) separation process using extraction chromatography.In the structural optimization of the extractant-impregnated adsorbent, we investigated the adsorption and separation behavior of the adsorbent carrier (SiO2-P) by varying the styrene divinylbenzene copolymer coating rate from 15% to 0.5%.From these experimental results, it was shown that TEHDGA impregnated adsorbent and HONTA impregnated adsorbent exhibit good adsorption properties even when the Sty-DVB coating rate is reduced to 0.5%.On the other hand, TEHDGA impregnated adsorbent showed good separation behavior even when Sty-DVB coverage was reduced, while tailing was observed in the elution curve for HONTA impregnated adsorbent.From these results, it is suggested that the optimum Sty-DVB coating rate should be determined for each extractant.In this work, we performed a continuous column separation experiment using TEHDGA impregnated adsorbent packed columns with the proposed separation flowsheet.These separation experimental results showed that TEHDGA impregnated adsorbent exhibited good repetitive separation performance, and reproducible chromatograms were obtained.Furthermore, TEHDGA impregnated adsorbent with 0.5% Sty-DVB coating was shown to be a suitable adsorbent for this system with less Ln(III) contamination in the MA intermediate product.