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 Los Alamos researchers have demonstrated a chemical reaction
that offers a potential new approach for selectively removing radioactive actinide ions from process streams, waste solutions, or environmental waters. The researchers showed that an organic molecule called a
"crown ether" acted as a complexing ligand and completely encapsulated a neptunium oxo-ion in water. This has previous only been observed with uranium oxo-ions and only in
organic solvents. The encapsulation of a transuranic element under aqueous conditions suggests the potential use of such ligands for removing radionuclides from contaminated ground waters.
The combined molecular compound crystallizes out of aqueous solution as large, turquoise-colored crystals. The researchers, part of Los Alamos' Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science, used x-ray diffraction and laser
spectroscopy to confirm the neptunium's complete encapsulation and are now looking at whether the process occurs with heavier actinide oxo-ions like those of plutonium and americium.
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