Abstract
One important factor which affects migration of U(VI) in the subsurface is the sorption at the solid/solution interface. Many factors control the sorption of U(VI) on mineral surfaces and one significant candidate among them is the distri-bution of aqueous species. In this study, column experiments were carried out to investigate the transport of uranium, arsenate and uranium-arsenate together (0.5:0.5 μM/l) in columns packed with SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2 and FeOOH at pH 6.5. Transport behavior of U(VI) and As(V) through SiO2 and TiO2 packed columns are identical in the inlet solutions containing either U(VI) or As(V) separately, or both together. In the presence of equimolar U(VI) and As(V), a substantial in-crease in As(V) mobility and a slight decrease in U(VI) transport through Al2O3 were observed. When Al2O3 is replaced with FeOOH, a significant change in the pattern of mobility was shown by As(V); whereas U(VI) showed only minor changes. The changes in transport behavior of both elements can be attributed to the competitive sorption between uranyl and arsenate species or due to the for-mation of uranyl-arsenate species. The immobilization of uranyl and arsenate with the aforementioned minerals are in the order FeOOH > TiO2 > Al2O3 > SiO2 under our experimental conditions. This study thus gives potential information about the transport behavior of uranyl and arsenate in natural systems, especially when both elements are present.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Arai Y, Elzinga EJ, Sparks DL (2001) X-ray absorption spectroscopic investigation of ar-senite and arsenate adsorption at the aluminum oxide-water interface. Journal of Col-loid and Interface Science 235:80-88
Aytas SM, Akyil S, Eral M (2004) Adsorption and thermodynamic behavior of uranium on natural zeolite. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 260:119-125
Bachmaf S, Merkel BJ (2011) Sorption of uranium(VI) at the clay mineral-water interface. Environmental Earth Sciences 63:925-934
Bachmaf S, Planer-Friedrich B, Merkel BJ (2009) Competitive sorption and desorption of arsenate and uranium on bentonite and kaolinite. In: Podosek FA (ed) 19th Annual V.M Goldschmidt Conference. Elsevier, Davos, Switzerland, p A 67
Barnett MO, Jardine PM, Brooks SC, Selim HM (2000) Adsorption and transport of urani-um(VI) in subsurface media. Soil Science Society of America Journal 64:908-917
Borovec Z (1981) The Adsorption of Uranyl Species by Fine Clay. Chemical Geology 32:45-58
Brendler V, Geipel G, Bernhard G, Nitsche H (1996) Complexation in the system UO22 +/PO43-/OH-(aq): Patentiometric and spectroscopic investigations at very low ionic strengths. Radiochimica Acta 74:75-80
Camacho LM, Deng SG, Parra RR (2010) Uranium removal from groundwater by natural clinoptilolite zeolite: Effects of pH and initial feed concentration. Journal of Hazardous Materials 175:393-398
Cheng T, Barnett MO, Roden EE, Zhuang JL (2004) Effects of phosphate on uranium(VI) adsorption to goethite-coated sand. Environmental Science & Technology 38:6059-6065
Cheng T, Barnett MO, Roden EE, Zhunag JL (2007) Reactive transport of uranium(VI) and phosphate in a goethite-coated sand column: An experimental study. Chemosphere 68:1218-1223
Darland JE, Inskeep WP (1997) Effects of pH and phosphate competition on the transport of arsenate. Journal of Environmental Quality 26 (4):1133-1139
Dutta PK, Ray AK, Sharma VK, Millero FJ (2004) Adsorption of arsenate and arsenite on titanium dioxide suspensions. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 278:270-275
Gezahegne W, Hennig C, Tsushima S, Planer-Friedrich B, Merkel BJ (2012) EXAFS and DFT Investigations of Uranyl-Arsenate Complexes in Aqueous Solution. Environmen-tal Science and Technology 46 (4): 2228–2233
Goldberg S, Johnston CT (2001) Mechanisms of arsenic adsorption on amorphous oxides evaluated using macroscopic measurements, vibrational spectroscopy, and surface complexation modeling. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 234:204-216
Guo ZJ, Li Y, Wu WS (2009) Sorption of U(VI) on goethite: Effects of pH, ionic strength, phosphate, carbonate and fulvic acid. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 67:996-1000
Hsi CKD, Langmuir D (1985) Adsorption of Uranyl onto Ferric Oxyhydroxides - Applica-tion of the Surface Complexation Site-Binding Model. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta 49:1931-1941
Kohler M, Wieland E, Leckie JO (1992) Metal-Ligand-Surface Interactions during Sorption of Uranyl and Neptunyl on Oxides and Silicates. In: Kharaka YK, Maest AS (eds) Wa-ter-Rock Interaction (VII). Balkema, Rotterdam, p 51–54
Krepelova A, Sachs S, Bernhard G (2006) Uranium(VI) sorption onto kaolinite in the pres-ence and absence of humic acid. Radiochimica Acta 94:825-833
Lee H, Choi W (2002) Photocatalytic oxidation of arsenite in TiO2 suspension: Kinetics and mechanisms. Environmental Science & Technology 36:3872-3878
Lieser KH, Quandtklenk S, Thybusch B (1992) Sorption of Uranyl Ions on Hydrous Silicon Dioxide. Radiochimica Acta 57:45-50
Liu XW, Byrne RH (1997) Rare earth and yttrium phosphate solubilities in aqueous solu-tion. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta 61:1625-1633
Merkel BJ, Hasche-Berger A (2006) Uranium in the Environment - Mining Impact and Consequences, Vol. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Merkel BJ, Planer-Friedrich, B., Wolkersdorfer, C. (2002) Uranium in the Aquatic Environment, Vol. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
Missana T, Garcia-Gutierrez M, Maffiotte C (2003) Experimental and modeling study of the uranium (VI) sorption on goethite. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 260:291-301
Nair S, Merkel BJ (2011) Impact of Alkaline Earth Metals on Aqueous Speciation of U(VI) and Sorption on Quartz. Aquatic Geochemistry 17:209-219
Pabalan RT, Turner DR (1996) Uranium(6 +) sorption on montmorillonite: Experimental and surface complexation modeling study. Aquatic Geochemistry 2:203-226
Payne TE, Davis JA, Waite TD (1996) Uranium Adsorption on Ferrihydrite - Effects of Phosphate and Humic Acid. Radiochimica Acta 74:239-243
Pena ME, Korfiatis GP, Patel M, Lippincott L, Meng XG (2005) Adsorption of As(V) and As(III) by nanocrystalline titanium dioxide. Water Research 39:2327-2337
Rutsch M, Geipel G, Brendler V, Bernhard G, Nitsche H (1999) Interaction of uranium(VI) with arsenate(V) in aqueous solution studied by time-resolved laser-induced fluores-cence spectroscopy (TRLFS). Radiochimica Acta 86:135-141
Schulze R, Merkel BJ (2011) Sorption of uranium on iron coated sand in the presence of ar-senate, selenate and phosphate. In: Merkel BJ, Schipek M (eds) The New Uranium Mining Boom; Challenge and Lessons Learned. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, p 573-578
Schwertmann U, Cornell RM (2000) Iron Oxides in the Laboratory. Preparation and Char-acterization, Vol. WILEY-VCH, Weinheim Germany
Sherman DM, Peacock CL, Hubbard CG (2008) Surface complexation of U(VI) on goethite (alpha-FeOOH). Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta 72:298-310
Smith AH, Lingas EO, Rahman M (2000) Contamination of drinking-water by arsenic in Bangladesh: A public health emergency. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78:1093-1103
Stollenwerk KG (2003) Geochemical Processes Controlling Transport of Arsenic in Groundwater:A Review of Adsorption. In: Welch AH, Stollenwerk KG (eds) Arsenic in Groundwater - Geochemistry and Occurrence. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston
Sylwester ER, Hudson EA, Allen PG (2000) The structure of uranium (VI) sorption com-plexes on silica, alumina, and montmorillonite. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta 64:2431-2438
Xu H, Allard B, Grimvall A (1988) Influence of Ph and Organic-Substance on the Adsorp-tion of As(V) on Geologic Materials. Water Air and Soil Pollution 40 (3-4):293-305
Zhang HX, Song SP, Tao ZY (2009) Effect of flow rate on the sorption breakthrough be-haviors of uranium(VI), phosphate, and fulvic acid onto a silica column. Journal of Ra-dioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 281:505-511
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Nair, S., Merkel, B.J. (2015). Sorption of U(VI) and As(V) on SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2 and FeOOH: A column experiment study. In: Merkel, B., Arab, A. (eds) Uranium - Past and Future Challenges. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11059-2_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11059-2_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11058-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11059-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)