Selective extraction of plutonium(IV) over uranium(VI), americium(III), europium(III) and zirconium(IV) with bidentate O-phenoxydiamide ligands: experimental and theoretical study

To rapidly assess the contamination of actinides in emergency water, a method was developed to simultaneously analyze U, Th, Pu and Am. The method consists of two steps: extraction chromatographic separation using UTEVA and DGA resins and isotopic determination of actinides by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). The whole analytical procedure takes only 8 h and high chemical recoveries of actinides were obtained. The cross spectral interferences between actinides in ICPMS measurement were sufficiently removed. The accuracy was validated by analyzing IAEA-443 seawater sample. The low limits of detection of actinides allow this method to distinguish low level contamination.