Development of functional materials for extraction, sequestration, and separation applications

The separation and purification of elements, ions, and molecules are of great importance to a wide arrays of chemical industries. To this end, materials are continuously being designed to effect and improve upon these separations. Herein are described three classes of materials for the separation of specific analytes of interest. Polymeric extractants were developed based on the incorporation of selective ligands through ring-opening metathesis polymerization, and polymers bearing picolinic acid functionalized pendant groups were shown to selectively extract Cu(II) over a panel of transition metal ions. This material shows promise in radiomedicine, for the purification of Cu radioisotopes. Rigidified picolinamides were shown to selectively extract Am(III) over Eu(III), and were shown to have potential for application in nuclear fuel reprocessing. Finally, polymeric materials for the sequestration of radioiodine are presented and were successfully prepared, containing pendant imidazolium groups for binding Ag(I). These materials may serve as solid sorbents for the fixation of volatile radioiodine from nuclear fuel waste