Publication

Abstract : The interaction of uranyl nitrate with mandelic and lactic acids has been investigated by potentiometric and spectrophotometric techniques. In both cases, the potentiometric titration of uranyl nitrate with KOH in the presence of an equivalent amount of the ligand exhibited a sharp inflexion at 2 2 3 moles of base per mole of the metal ion. In the initial stages of these titrations the reaction has been shown to proceed as: where “R” represents an alkyl or aryl group. Stability constants of the uranyl mandelate and lactate chelates have been found to be k = 2.93 × 10 and 3.02 × 102 respectively. These chelates have been shown to hydrolyse above pH 3.1 and the hydrolysis constants have been found to be K H = 1.514 × 10−5 and 5.13 × 10−6 respectively. These mono-hydroxy chelate species have been shown to dimerize and above a pH of about 3.9 the binuclear chelate species have been found to hydrolyse further, resulting in polymerization of a higher order.