Establishing Cost-Effective Computational Models for the Prediction of Lanthanoid Binding in [Ln(NO3)]2+ (with Ln = La to Lu)

Evaluating the efficiency of predictive methods is critical to the processes of upscaling laboratory processes to full-scale operations on an industrial scale. With regard to separation of lanthanoids, there is a considerable motivation to optimize these processes because of immediate use in nuclear fuel cycle operations, nuclear forensics applications, and rare-earth metal recovery. Efficient predictive capabilities in Gibbs free energies of reaction are essential to optimize separations and ligand design for selective binding needed for various radiochemical applications such as nuclear fuel disposition and recycling of lanthanoid fission products into useful radioisotope products. Ligand design is essential for selective binding of lanthanoids, as separating contiguous lanthanoids is challenging because of the similar behavior these elements exhibit. Modeling including electronic structure calculations of lanthanoid-containing compounds is particularly challenging because of the associated computational cost encountered with the number of electrons correlated in these systems and relativistic considerations. This study evaluates the predictive capabilities of various ab initio methods in the calculation of Gibbs free energies of reaction for [Ln(NO3)](2+) compounds (with Ln = La to Lu), as nitrates are critical in traditional separation processes utilizing nitric acid. The composite methodologies evaluated predict Gibbs free energies of reaction for [Ln(NO3)](2+) compounds within 5 kcal mol(-1) in most cases from the target method [CCSD(T)-FSII/cc-pwCV infinity Z-DK3+SO] at a fraction of the computational cost.