VATIS UPDATE Article

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the United States, recently announced that they had found new ways to influence selectivity for specific charged ions. As a result, the researchers claim that utilization of the discovery would improve environmental clean-ups. The ORNL researchers found new ways to influence selectivity for specific positively charged ions (cations) with the addition of simple receptors, not for cations but rather for negatively charged ions (anions). This discovery, which provides a new twist on selectivity, proves that adding an anion receptor can affect the selectivity of extractants used to separate metals.

Better selectivity via the addition of anion receptors to enhance discrimination between metals, such as sodium and cesium, could improve future environmental cleanup efforts. “This is the first instance of using an anion receptor to enhance selectivity for a cation. “The basic research shows that you can modify the selectivity of an extractant using an anion receptor. This proof of principle could have future broader implications in removal of contaminants like cesium from ocean water, groundwater or nuclear waste in storage tanks,” said Neil Williams at ORNL.