Sequestration of trivalent actinides and lanthanides present in used nuclear fuel and legacy wastes is necessary for appropriate long-term stewardship of these metals, particularly to prevent their release into the environment. Organically modified mesoporous silica is an efficient material for recovery and potential subsequent separation of actinides and lanthanides because of its high surface area, tunable ligand selection, and chemically robust substrate. We have synthesized the first novel hybrid material composed of SBA-15 type mesoporous silica functionalized with diglycolamide ligands (DGA-SBA). Because of the high surface area substrate, the DGA-SBA was found to have the highest Eu capacity reported so far in the literature of all DGA solid-phase extractants. The sorption behavior of europium and americium on DGA-SBA in nitric and hydrochloric acid media was tested in batch contact experiments. DGA-SBA was found to have high sorption of Am and Eu in pH 1, 1 M, and 3 M nitric and hydrochloric acid concentrations, which makes it promising for sequestration of these metals from used nuclear fuel or legacy waste. The kinetics of Eu sorption were found to be two times slower than that for Am in 1 M HNO3. Additionally, the short-term susceptibility of DGA-SBA to degradation in the presence of acid was probed using (29)Si and (13)C solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The material was found to be relatively stable under these conditions, with the ligand remaining intact after 24 h of contact with 1 M HNO3, an important consideration in use of the DGA-SBA as an extractant from acidic media.

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The fundamental interaction of U(vi) with diethylphosphatoethyl triethoxysilane functionalized SBA-15 mesoporous silica is studied by macroscopic batch experiments and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. DPTS-functionalized silica has been shown to extract U(vi) from nitric acid solutions at or above pH 3. Extraction is dependent on pH and ionic strength. Single-pulse (31)P NMR on U(vi) contacted samples revealed that U(vi) only interacts with a fraction of the ligands present on the surface. At pH 4 the U(vi) extraction capacity of the material is limited to 27-37% of the theoretical capacity, based on ligand loading. We combined single pulse (31)P NMR on U(vi)-contacted samples with batch studies to measure a ligand-to-metal ratio of approximately 2 : 1 at pH 3 and 4. Batch studies and cross-polarization NMR measurements reveal that U(vi) binds to deprotonated phosphonate and/or silanol sites. We use (31)P-(31)P DQ-DRENAR NMR studies to compare the average dipolar coupling between phosphorus spins for both U(vi)-complexed and non-complexed ligand environments. These measurements reveal that U(vi) extraction is not limited by inadequate surface distribution of ligands, but rather by low stability of the surface phosphonate complex.

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The development of multi-dimensional statistical methods has been demonstrated on variable contact time (VCT) 29Si{1H} cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CP/MAS) data sets collected using Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) type acquisition. These methods utilize the transformation of the collected 2D VCT data set into a 3D data set and use tensor-rank decomposition to extract the spectral components that vary as a function of transverse relaxation time (T2) and CP contact time. The result is a data dense spectral set that can be used to reconstruct CP/MAS spectra at any contact time with a high signal to noise ratio and with an excellent agreement to 29Si{1H} CP/MAS spectra collected using conventional acquisition. These CPMG data can be collected in a fraction of time that would be required to collect a conventional VCT data set. We demonstrate the method on samples of functionalized mesoporous silica materials and show that the method can provide valuable surface specific information about their functional chemistry.

Acetamide diethylphosphonate (AcPhos)-functionalized silica has been shown to have a high affinity for U(vi) in pH 2-3 nitric acid. Previous work with AcPhos-functionalized silica has focused on actinide and lanthanide extraction under various conditions, but has shown poor reproducibility in the functionalization process. For this work, four AcPhos-functionalized SBA-15 materials were synthesized and evaluated based on their U(vi) sorption capacity and their stability in nitric acid. Materials synthesized using pyridine as a basic catalyst were shown to form a greater fraction of polymeric structures at the silica surface, which correlated with higher structural integrity upon contact with acidic solutions. Single-pulse P andH NMR spectra of these materials show evidence of phosphonic acid groups, as well as hydrogen-bonding interactions either between ligands or with the silica surface. Additionally, these materials were found to have significantly higher U(vi) sorption capacities and K values than the materials synthesized without pyridine, most likely due to the ion-exchange properties of the phosphonic acid groups. The P-P DQ-DRENAR NMR technique was used to compare the average strength of dipolar coupling interactions between phosphorus atoms for the four materials. Because the strength of dipolar coupling interactions depends on the number and proximity of neighboring spins, this technique provides information about the average density of ligands on the surface. The conventional functionalization procedure yielded materials with the lowest average surface ligand density, while those using extended reaction times and the pyridine base catalyst yielded materials with higher surface ligand densities.

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