CHEMICAL STUDIES OF RUTHERFORDIUM (ELEMENT-104) .3. SOLVENT-EXTRACTION INTO TRIISOOCTYLAMINE FROM HF SOLUTIONS

The extraction of element 104, rutherfordium (Rf), and its group 4 hom ologs into 0.25 M triisooctylamine (TIOA) in o,m,p-xylene from various concentrations of hydrofluoric acid was studied. This extraction syst em was of particular interest because all group 4 cations studied form ed complexes with the same coordination number (CN) of 6. Therefore, s pecies extracted were similar and the extractability depends on the ra dii of the fluoride complexes. The studies showed that the extractabil ity for the group 4 elements in this system decreases in the order Ti > Zr approximate to Hf > Rf, in inverse order from the decrease in ion ic radii Rf > Zr approximate to Hf > Ti. This order is different than the order in the hydrolysis, TBP-HCl, and TBP-HBr extraction systems w here Rf, due to decreasing CN, behaves more similarly to Ti than to Zr and Hf.