Amino Acid Decorated Phenanthroline Diimide as Sustainable Hydrophilic Am(III) Masking Agent with High Acid Resistance

Abstract

Hydrophilic actinide masking agents are believed to be efficient alternatives to circumvent the extensive hazardous organic solvents/diluents typically employed in the liquid–liquid extraction for nuclear waste management. However, the practical application of hydrophilic ligands faces significant challenges in both synthetic/purification procedures and, more importantly, the acid resistance of the ligands themselves. Herein, we have demonstrated the combination of phenanthroline diimide framework with a biomotif of histidine flanking parts could achieve efficient separation of trivalent lanthanides/actinides (also actinides/actinides) under high acidity of over 1 M HNO₃. This approach leverages the soft–hard coordination properties of N, O-hybrid ligands, as well as the energetically favored imides for metal coordination and the multiple protonation of histidine. These factors collectively contribute to the synthesis of an easily accessible, highly water-soluble, superior selective, and acid-resistant Am(III) masking agent. Thus, we have shown in this paper, by proper combination of synthetic N, O-hybrid ligand with amino acid, trivalent lanthanide and actinide separation could be efficiently fulfilled in a more sustainable manner.