Studies on the Recovery of Uranium from Phosphoric Acid Medium Using Synergistic Mixture of 2-Ethyl Hexyl Hydrogen 2-Ethyl Hexyl Phosphonate and Octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutyl Carbamoyl Methyl Phosphine Oxide

Abstract

This paper describes the extraction of uranium from aqueous phosphoric acid medium using 2-ethyl hexyl hydrogen 2-ethyl hexyl phosphonate (PC88A) and octyl (phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO) individually as well as their synergistic mixture in different diluents. The extraction parameters such as variation in concentration of either of the extractants, concentration of H₃PO₄ and uranium in the aqueous phase are investigated to optimize the extraction conditions. Results indicate that the synergistic mixture, 0.9 M PC88A + 0.1 M CMPO in xylene, can be used for the extraction of uranium from the phosphoric acid medium. The loaded uranium from the synergistic organic phase can be stripped using 0.5 M solution of (NH₄)₂CO₃. This synergistic mixture is used to recover uranium from a typical wet process phosphoric acid sample and the recovery is found to be better than 90%.