| Nuclear power is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels that release large amounts of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. Uranium is needed as fuel for nuclear reactors; it is currently obtained through mining, a practice with undesirable environmental impact. Extraction of uranium from seawater has the potential to reduce impact from mining if an efficient and economically feasible method is developed.;Past studies have shown that compounds with amidoxime functionality are the most promising for uranium extraction at the pH of seawater and in the presence of other metals. This research looked at two amidoxime ligands: acetamidoxime and naphthalimidedioxime. Potentiometric, spectrophotometric, and NMR titrations were employed to study these ligands; both ligand and ligand-metal titrations were performed. The data collected from the ligand titrations was used to find pKa values for these, and the pKa values were in turn used to find formation constants for ligand - metal complexes. The work with acetamidoxime was successful and produced good results for both pKaand formation values. Results for naphthalimidedioxime were inconclusive and ultimately produced no values for either pKa or formation constants of the ligand. |
