Microfluidic Tools for the Liquid-liquid Extraction of Radionuclides in Analytical Procedures

AbstractThe analyses of radionuclides are in great demand and a cost effective technique for the separation of analytes is required. A micro-scale reactor composed of microchannels fabricated in a microchip was chosen to investigate liquid-liquid extraction reactions driven by three different families of metal extractants: neutral, acidic and ion-pair extractants. The extraction conditions in the microfluidic device were considered. These investigations demonstrated that the conventional methodology used for solvent extraction in macro-scale reactors is not directly transposable to micro liquid-liquid extraction systems. However, it is expected that the understanding of the chemical and physical phenomena involved in a reference extraction systems studied in a given selected lab-on-chip will lead us to develop and validate a methodology suitable to miniaturized reactors