Removal of europium impurities from samarium-153 in nitrate media using ionic liquids

摘要

The invention relates to a process of isolating samarium from a hydrophilic composition comprising nitrate ions, europium and samarium, by reducing europium(III) to europium(II) in this hydrophilic composition, and by extracting the samarium with a water-immiscible organic phase comprising an ionic liquid comprising nitrate anions.