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Stability of europium(ii) in aqueous nitrate solutions

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

In the lanthanide series, Eu3+ is most easily reduced to its divalent state. Reduction of Eu3+ has been studied extensively in aqueous media that are insensitive to reducing conditions. Recently, it has been reported that reduction of Eu3+ is also feasible in aqueous nitrate solutions and that Eu2+ remained sufficiently stable in these media to conduct separation experiments. However, additional fundamental research on the reduction efficiency of Eu3+ and stability of Eu2+ in these media has not been reported yet. In this paper, cyclic voltammetry, magnetic susceptibility measurements, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy were used to gain more insights into the reduction of Eu3+ in aqueous nitrate media. Within the parameters used in this work, near-quantitative reduction of Eu3+ could be achieved within 120 min in highly concentrated nitrate salt solutions, using both chemical and electrochemical reduction techniques. Moreover, Eu2+ was remarkably stable in these solutions, showing just a small percentage of back-oxidation after 5 h in a sealed measurement cell.
Journal: Dalton Transactions
ISSN: 1477-9226
Issue: 39
Volume: 48
Pages: 14758 - 14768
Publication year:2019
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:3
CSS-citation score:1
Authors from:Government, Higher Education
Accessibility:Open