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Title: A Telescoping View of Solute Architectures in a Complex Fluid System

Journal Article · · ACS Central Science
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Ibaraki (Japan)
  2. Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Ibaraki (Japan); High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Ibaraki (Japan); The Graduate Univ. of Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Ibaraki (Japan)
  3. The Univ. of Manchester, Manchester (United Kingdom)
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States); Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)

Short- and long-range correlations between solutes in solvents can influence the macroscopic chemistry and physical properties of solutions in ways that are not fully understood. The class of liquids known as complex (structured) fluids—containing multiscale aggregates resulting from weak self-assembly—are especially important in energy-relevant systems employed for a variety of chemical- and biological-based purification, separation, and catalytic processes. In these, solute (mass) transfer across liquid-liquid (water, oil) phase boundaries is the core function. Oftentimes the operational success of phase transfer chemistry is dependent upon the bulk fluid structures for which a common functional motif and an archetype aggregate is the micelle. In particular, there is an emerging consensus that mass transfer and bulk organic phase behaviors—notably the critical phenomenon of phase splitting—are impacted by the effects of micellar-like aggregates in water-in-oil microemulsions. In this study, we elucidate the microscopic structures and mesoscopic architectures of metal-, water-, and acid-loaded organic phases using a combination of X-ray and neutron experimentation as well as density functional theory and molecular dynamics simulations. The key conclusion is that the transfer of metal ions between an aqueous phase and an organic one involves the formation of small mononuclear clusters typical of metal-ligand coordination chemistry, at one extreme, in the organic phase, and their aggregation to multinuclear primary clusters that self-assemble to form even larger super-clusters typical of supramolecular chemistry, at the other. Our metrical results add an orthogonal perspective to the energetics-based view of phase splitting in chemical separations known as the micellar model—founded upon the interpretation of small-angle neutron scattering data—with respect to a more general phase-space (gas-liquid) model of soft matter self-assembly and particle growth. Furthermore, the structure hierarchy observed in the aggregation of our quinary—zirconium nitrate–nitric acid–water–tri-n-butyl phosphate–n-octane—system is relevant to understanding solution phase transitions, in general, and the function of engineered fluids with metalloamphiphiles, in particular, for mass transfer applications, such as demixing in separation and synthesis in catalysis science.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1489165
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1494559; OSTI ID: 1508830; OSTI ID: 1607238
Journal Information:
ACS Central Science, Vol. 5, Issue 1; ISSN 2374-7943
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 45 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Extraction Performance of a Fluorous Phosphate for Zr(IV) from HNO 3 Solution: Comparison with Tri- n -Butyl Phosphate journal July 2019
Amphiphile-Based Complex Fluids: The Self-Assembly Ensemble as Protagonist journal December 2018