Bio-Inspired Actinides Recognition for Separation Science
EMSL Project ID
48578
Abstract
A critically important problem facing the US is the issue of spent nuclear fuel disposal. The grand challenge here lies in the design of an efficient fuel cycle. The development of chelating techniques for capturing and separating actinide species has the potential to address a number of current problems ranging from reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel to environmental remediation. I propose to build a fundamental theoretical understanding of the physico-chemical interactions of binding motifs for actinides and to use that understanding to rationally design chelating reagents with high selectivity to actinides, to allow for better reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels, reducing the need for long-term waste storage, and closing of the fuel cycle. The research will be based on two main thrusts: the thermo- structural investigation of the actinides/bio-ligands complexes, and the tuning of the redox potentials of actinides compounds through interactions with ligands. To unravel the nature of chemical bonding in f- block elements and gain complete control of chemical selectivity in complex environment, the research will focus on characterizing the interactions between actinides and selected biomolecules using first principle methods that include relativistic effects, spin-orbit coupling and multiplet complexity.
Project Details
Start Date
2014-10-01
End Date
2015-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members