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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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What’s in your Dubai chocolate? Nuclear scientists test pistachios for toxins
For the uninitiated, Dubai chocolate is a candy bar filled with pistachio and tahini cream and crispy pastry recently popularized by social media influencers. While it’s easy to dismiss as a viral craze now past its peak, the nutty green confection has spiked global pistachio demand, and growers and processors are ramping up production. That means more pistachios need to be tested for aflatoxins—a byproduct of a common crop mold.
J. M. Fletcher, C. J. Hardy
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 16 | Number 4 | August 1963 | Pages 421-427
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26554
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The extraction by TBP of nitrato complexes of metals occurs mainly by the formation of nonconducting complexes in which the oxygen of the PO group is covalently bound to the metal, e.g., P==0 → M. In other TBP complexes, this O atom is bonded to hydrogen, e.g., to a hydrogen atom of water, of an undissociated acid, or of the hydronium ion. Three features in the extraction of metal nitrates at trace concentration from nitric acid concentrations >7M which await interpretation are the second increase in the distribution coefficient, DM; the decrease in the magnitude of this second increase as the fraction of inert diluent increases; and the change in the temperature coefficient of DM from negative to positive. Extraction (i) by bonding of the phosphoryl oxygen to an aquo group (of the aquonitrato metal complex), or (ii) by nitrato acids, do not explain these features. Measurements of the conductivity and viscosity of 100% TBP-HNO3-H2O phases are consistent with the existence of three steps as the ratio HNO3/TBP increases. In the first step, ions, postulated as (TBP·H2O·H)3O+ and (TBP·H)2(H2O·H)O+, are formed. In the second step, the molar conductivity decreases as the predominant species becomes TBP·HNO3. In the third step the molar conductivity and the water content increase by the formation of ions such as (TBP·H)(H2O·H)(HNO3·H)O+, in which a nitric acid molecule is bonded to the hydronium ion: the second increase in DM for certain metals is explained by there being similar bonding, through the oxygen of a nitrato group of the metal complex, in place of the HNO3 in this complex ion when HNO3/TBP is >1. The positive temperature coefficient shown by this form of extraction of metal nitrates is also shown in this region by the extraction of nitric acid, the conductivity, and the water content.
