Preconcentration of uranium(VI) and thorium(IV) from aqueous solutions using low-cost abundantly available sorbent

ANT BURSALI E., MERDİVAN M., YURDAKOÇ M.

JOURNAL OF RADIOANALYTICAL AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY, vol.283, no.2, pp.471-476, 2010 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 283 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2010
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s10967-009-0365-3
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF RADIOANALYTICAL AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.471-476
  • Keywords: Olive cake, Sorption, Thorium(IV), Uranium(VI), SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION, SILICA-GEL, SELECTIVE EXTRACTION, ACTIVATED CARBONS, VI IONS, SEPARATION, SORPTION, ADSORPTION, REMOVAL, ADSORBENT
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Olive cake as low-cost abundantly available sorbent has been characterized by N-2 at 77 K adsorption, porosity analysis, elemental analysis and IR spectra and has been used for preconcentrating of uranium(VI) and thorium(IV) ions prior to their determination spectrophotometrically. The optimum pH values for quantitative sorption of U(VI) and Th(IV) are 4-7 and 3-7, respectively. The enrichment factor for the preconcentration of U(VI) and Th(IV) were found to be 125 and 75 in the given order. The sorption capacity of olive cake is in the range of 2,260-15,000 mu g g(-1) for Th(IV) and in the range of 1,090-17,000 mu g g(-1) for U(VI) at pH 3-7. The sorbent exhibits good reusability and the uptake and stripping of the studied ions were fairly rapid. The elution of U(VI) and Th(IV) was performed with 0.3-1 M HCl/1-2 M HNO3 and 0.3-0.8 M HCl/1 M HNO3, respectively. The precision of the method was 1.8 RSD% for U(VI) and 2.5 RSD% for Th(IV) in a concentration of 1.00 mu g mL(-1) for 10 replicate analysis. The influence of some electrolytes and cations as interferents was discussed. Separation of U(VI) and Th(IV) from other metal ions in synthetic solution was achieved.