Report on neptunium speciation by NMR and optical spectroscopies

Hydrolysis and carbonate complexation reactions were examined for NpO{sub 2}{sup 2+} and NpO{sub 2}{sup +} ions by a variety of techniques including potentiometric titration, UV-Vis-NIR and NMR spectroscopy. The equilibrium constant for the reaction 3NpO{sub 2}(CO{sub 3}){sub 3}{sup 4{minus}} + 3H{sup +} {rightleftharpoons} (NpO{sub 2}){sub 3}(CO{sub 3}){sub 6}{sup 6{minus}} + 3HCO{sub 3}{sup {minus}} was determined to be logK = 19.7 ({plus_minus} 0.8) (I = 2.5 m). {sup 17}O NMR spectroscopy of NpO{sub 2}{sup n+} ions (n = 1,2) reveals a readily observable {sup 17}O resonance for n = 2, but not for n = 1. The first hydrolysis constant for NpO{sub 2}{sup +} was studied as a function of temperature, and the functional form for the temperature-dependent equilibrium constant for the reaction written as NpO{sub 2}{sup +} + H{sub 2}O {rightleftharpoons} NpO{sub 2}OH + H{sup +} was found to be logK = 2.28 {minus} 3780/T, where T is in {degree}K. Finally, the temperature dependence of neptunium(V) carbonate complexation constants was studied. For the first carbonate complexation constant, the appropriate functional form was found to be log{beta}{sub 01} = 1.47 + 786/T.