DEGRADATION OF TRUEX-DODECANE PROCESS SOLVENT

The hydrolysis and radiolysis of TRUEX-dodecane process solvent (0.2 M octyl(phenyl)N,N-diisobutycarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO)-1.2 M tributylphosphate (TBP) in n-dodecane) has been Investigated in a series of experiments conducted in a biphasic mode involving contact with aqueous nitric acid solutions. The stability of the principle extractant (CMPO) is observed to be considerably greater than that reported previously for similar studies in chlorinated diluents. The concentration profiles for the degradation products determined by capillary gas chromatography have been successfully fit assuming pseudo-first order kinetics and mechanistic information derived from these fits.