Preferential extraction of hafnium over zirconium with D2EHPA through selective complexation of organic acids

Nuclear grade zirconium and hafnium are important materials in nuclear power plants, which are usually produced with solvent extraction and separation technology. In this paper, the preferential extracting hafnium was successfully achieved by the selective complexation of the selected organic acids. Hydrochloric acid concentration, organic acid concentration, D2EHPA concentration were investigated to explore the optimum extraction conditions. Increasing acidity and extractant concentration was not conducive to the separation of zirconium and hafnium, while organic acid could effectively improve the separation factor, which was verified by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The largest separation factor, 9.936, for hafnium over zirconium was obtained.