Acetohydroxamic Acid (AHA)

Acetohydroxamic acid is a drug that is a potent and irreversible inhibitor of bacterial and plant urease usually used for urinary tract infections. The molecule is similar to urea but is not hydrolyzable by the urease enzyme. AHA is used as a stripping agent In the UREX process. While extraction yields of uranium remain high upon addition of AHA, hexavalent plutonium and neptunium are rapidly reduced to the pentavalent state while the tetravalent species and removed from the product stream. However, under acidic conditions, aceto-hydroxamic acid undergoes hydrolytic degradation. In this study, the kinetics of the hydrolysis of aceto-hydroxamic acid in nitric and perchloric acid media was investigated at several temperatures. The decrease of the concentration of AHA was determined via its ferric complex using UV-Vis spectroscopy.