Separations of used nuclear fuel at the engineered scale have generally been completed using the Plutonium Uranium Redox Extraction (PUREX) process. The PUREX process uses tributyl phosphate (TBP) as an extractant to recover uranium and plutonium. While the TBP extractant has proven effective at recovering U and Pu at the engineered scale, TBP is potentially vulnerable to third phase formation and TBP degradation products (monobutyl and dibutyl phosphoric acids) which can complicate recovery of extracted metals from the organic phase. An alternative class of extractants, monoamides, has been considered for applications in thorium and uranium fuel cycles. When compared to TBP, monoamides tend to have higher separation factors for U or Pu from fission products, structural materials, and Th. This review summarizes the literature that explores actinide separations using monoamides by assessing the physiochemical properties between a broader library of branched and straight-chain monoamides than considered in previous reviews. An emphasis is placed on fine-tuning the selectivity of branched monoamides.

工程规模的废旧核燃料分离通常已使用the铀氧化还原萃取（PUREX）工艺完成。PUREX工艺使用磷酸三丁酯（TBP）作为萃取剂来回收铀和p。尽管已证明TBP萃取剂可有效地以工程规模回收U和Pu，但TBP可能易受第三相形成和TBP降解产物（单丁基和二丁基磷酸）的影响，这会使从有机相中萃取金属的回收变得复杂。已考虑将另一类提取剂单酰胺用于th和铀燃料循环中。与TBP相比，单酰胺往往对裂变产物，结构材料和Th中的U或Pu具有更高的分离系数。这篇综述总结了通过评估比以前的综述中所考虑的范围更广的支链和直链单酰胺文库之间的理化性质，探索使用单酰胺进行act系元素分离的文献。重点放在微调支链单酰胺的选择性上。