(280b) Electrochemical Recovery of Fission Platinoids in 1-Butyl-1methylpyrrolidinium Dicyanamide Ionic Liquid

Electrochemical
Recovery of Fission Platinoids in 1-Butyl-1methylpyrrolidinium Dicyanamide
Ionic Liquid

Sujan
Shrestha^a, Miyan Nagib^a, Elizabeth J. Biddinger^a*

 

^aDepartment of Chemical Engineering, City
College of New York,

140^th Street and Convent Avenue, New
York, New York 10031

*Corresponding
Author

ebiddinger@che.ccny.cuny.edu

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been
proposed as a safer solvent than volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for extraction
of metals from aqueous sludge of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) due to its low
flammability and thermal stability (1-3). After extraction, the metals can be judiciously
recovered through electrodeposition because of the metal complexing ability,
moderate-to-high conductivity, and wide electrochemical window of the ILs (4). Therefore, studying electrodeposition of metals in ILs is of critical importance for the down-stream processing in the IL-based nuclear waste management processes.

In this work electrodeposition of non-radioactive
counterparts of fission platinoids (Pd, Rh and Ru) in ILs was investigated in
1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide ([Bmpyrr][DCA]). Besides being
important for nuclear waste management, fission platinoids have high economic
importance (5). Among the fission platinoids, Pd is the most utilizable because of its low radioactivity compared to that of Rh and Ru (5).

It was expected that the
thermodynamics and kinetics of the Pd change in the presence of Rh and Ru (6). So, we studied electrochemical behavior of Pd, Rh, and Ru separately and together in [Bmpyrr][DCA] using cyclic voltammetry. Electrodeposition was carried out on Ni substrate separately and from their mixture. Pd was found to be more soluble than Rh and Ru in [Bmpyrr][DCA]. Pd could also be easily reduced on Ni substrate within the cathodic limit of [Bmpyrr][DCA] forming a thin film of different morphologies dependent upon the potential applied. How the presence of Rh and Ru affect the electrodeposition behavior of Pd will be discussed in this presentation.

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