Determination of uranium in a kerosene solution of organophosphorus extractants

Abstract

A back-extraction (stripping) procedure, combined with two spectrophotometric methods, has been developed for the determination of uranium in kerosene solution. Uranium(VI) is stripped from a kerosene solution of organophosphorus extractants with sodium carbonate solution and, after a subsequent reaction with 4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol or 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol (as chromogenic reagents) is determined spectrophotometrically. These reagents are highly sensitive and form stable complexes with uranium. The procedure has been successfully applied to the determination of uranium in solutions of organophosphorus extractants in real systems, i.e., during the extraction of uranium from wet-process phosphoric acid.