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Up to now, several techniques such as solid-phase extraction, co-precipitation, and flotation, 6–9 have been introduced globally for separation and pre-concentration of different metal ions. Thus, the separation and preconcentration of uranium get great attention for nuclear energy development and the protection of the ecological environment. 4,5 In addition, lanthanide and actinide ions are always coexisting with each other. 1–3 The main sources of uranium are seawater and oceans which are estimated to contain 4.5 billion tons. Its commercial interest arises from its applications in nuclear power reactors, electrical power production, and the medical field. The robustness of the proposed methodology was evaluated by the detection of uranyl ions in different environmental samples and synthetic mixtures.Īmong the naturally occurring actinides, uranium is one of the most ubiquitous trace radioactive elements and has received much attention. The theoretical data confirmed the octahedral geometry of the UO 2 2+ complex with the lowest energy and excellent stability. It is worth mentioning that the geometry optimization, reactivity, and molecular electrostatic potential maps of the ligand and the proposed UO 2 2+ complex were acquired via DFT calculations to study their stabilities based on the geometry and binding affinity. These studies revealed that the recoveries of uranyl ions were in the range from 96.1% to 99.9% in the presence of some lanthanide ions such as Th 4+, Gd 3+, and Sm 3+. Furthermore, interference studies have been carried out to study the selectivity of our protocol. The developed CPE procedure exhibited a relatively low detection limit of 0.5 ng mL −1 in the linear range from 3 ng mL −1 to 250 ng mL −1. The extraction procedure has been optimized based on the concentration of the complexing agent and the non-ionic surfactant, phase separation temperatures, pH, and ionic strength. Subsequently, a cloud point extraction (CPE) protocol has been developed for the selective separation of the trace amounts of uranyl ions from some lanthanide ions after being captured by the ligand in the presence of non-ionic surfactant (Triton X-114). For uranyl extraction, a distinctive chelating ligand, namely ethyl 2-amino-6-hydroxy-5-(4-methoxyphenyldiazenyl)-4-phenyl-4 H-benzochromene-3-carboxylate, has been synthesized and characterized using FT-IR, NMR, and ESI-MS.