Abstract:
Ionic liquid can participate in or affect the self-assembly of amphiphiles due to its unique physical and chemical properties. Most amphiphiles used in the field of self-assembly based on ionic liquid are organic compounds, while the assembly of metal complexes in ionic liquid is rarely reported. In addition, the complex formed in the extraction of UO
2+2 by octyl(phenyl)-
N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide(CMPO)-1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide(C
2mimNTf
2) system needs further study. In this work, the self-assembly of UO
2(CMPO)
3(NO
3)
2 in C
2mimNTf
2 was studied. In situ transmission electron microscope(in situ TEM) demonstrats that UO
2(CMPO)
3(NO
3)
2 formed assembly in C2mimNTf2 in the presence of 70 μL water. Freeze-fracture transmission electron microscope(FF-TEM) shows that the assembly was micelle.In addition, the complex formed in the extraction of UO
2+2 by CMPO-C
2mimNTf
2 system was studied. Ion chromatography shows that the concentration of NO
-3 in water phase is almost unchanged before and after extraction. The peaks appeared in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry(ESI-MS) are attributed to the fragments of UO
2(CMPO)
3(NTf
2)
2. These results indicate that the extraction complex is UO
2(CMPO)
3(NTf
2)
2 instead of UO
2(CMPO)
3(NO
3)
2. This work helps understand the assembly of metal complexes in ionic liquid and provides an important insight into the extraction mechanism of UO
2+2 by CMPO-C
2mimNTf
2 system.