Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Sequestration of U(VI) from Acidic, Alkaline, and High Ionic-Strength Aqueous Media by Functionalized Magnetic Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles: Capacity and Binding Mechanisms

Journal Article · · Environmental Science and Technology
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5]
  1. Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL), Aiken, SC (United States).
  2. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Georgia, Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Ecology Lab.
  4. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cincinnati, OH (United States). National Risk Management Research Lab.
  5. Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK (Canada)
Uranium(VI) exhibits little adsorption onto sediment minerals in acidic, alkaline or high ionic-strength aqueous media that often occur in U mining or contaminated sites, which makes U(VI) very mobile and difficult to sequester. In this work, magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MMSNs) were functionalized with several organic ligands. The functionalized MMSNs were highly effective and had large binding capacity for U sequestration from high salt water (HSW) simulant (54 mg U/g sorbent). The functionalized MMSNs, after U exposure in HSW simulant, pH 3.5 and 9.6 artificial groundwater (AGW), were characterized by a host of spectroscopic methods. Among the key novel findings in this work was that in the HSW simulant or high pH AGW, the dominant U species bound to the functionalized MMSNs were uranyl or uranyl hydroxide, rather than uranyl carbonates as expected. The surface functional groups appear to be out-competing the carbonate ligands associated with the aqueous U species. The uranyl-like species were bound with N ligand as η2 bound motifs or phosphonate ligand as a monodentate, as well as on tetrahedral Si sites as an edge-sharing bidentate. Conclusively, the N and phosphonate ligand-functionalized MMSNs hold promise as effective sorbents for sequestering U from acidic, alkaline or high ionic-strength contaminated aqueous media.
Research Organization:
Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC09-08SR22470
OSTI ID:
1501348
Report Number(s):
SRNL-STI--2017-00262
Journal Information:
Environmental Science and Technology, Journal Name: Environmental Science and Technology Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 51; ISSN 0013-936X
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (50)

Extraction of uranium from sea water using biological origin adsorbents journal August 1984
Tuning the Release of Anticancer Drugs from Magnetic Iron Oxide/Mesoporous Silica Core/Shell Nanoparticles journal December 2011
Mine Wastes book January 2010
Mesoporous silica SBA-15 functionalized with phosphonate and amino groups for uranium uptake journal June 2012
Uranium solution-mineral equilibria at low temperatures with applications to sedimentary ore deposits journal June 1978
The structure of uranium (VI) sorption complexes on silica, alumina, and montmorillonite journal July 2000
X-ray absorption fine structure determination of pH-dependent U-bacterial cell wall interactions journal November 2002
EPR spectroscopy and imaging of TEMPO-labeled magnetite nanoparticles journal May 2014
Preparation of silica gel supported amidoxime adsorbents for selective adsorption of Hg(II) from aqueous solution journal October 2012
U(VI) and Sr(II) batch sorption and diffusion kinetics into mesoporous silica (MCM-41) journal December 2014
Synthesis of mesoporous silica-tethered phosphonic acid sorbents for uranium species from aqueous solutions journal October 2015
Spectroscopic investigation of U(VI) sorption at the calcite-water interface journal June 2004
Uranyl–chlorite sorption/desorption: Evaluation of different U(VI) sequestration processes journal October 2009
Biogenic uraninite precipitation and its reoxidation by iron(III) (hydr)oxides: A reaction modeling approach journal August 2011
The product of microbial uranium reduction includes multiple species with U(IV)–phosphate coordination journal April 2014
Functionalized magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles for U removal from low and high pH groundwater journal November 2016
Organo-functionalized mesoporous silicas for efficient uranium extraction journal November 2013
EPR study of radiation-induced defects in carbonate-containing hydroxyapatite annealed at high temperature journal April 2016
Extracting Uranium from Seawater: Promising AF Series Adsorbents journal November 2015
Chemical Insight into the Adsorption of Chromium(III) on Iron Oxide/Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposites journal July 2015
Molecular-Scale Characterization of Uranium Sorption by Bone Apatite Materials for a Permeable Reactive Barrier Demonstration journal October 2003
Determination of the Formation Constants of Ternary Complexes of Uranyl and Carbonate with Alkaline Earth Metals (Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Sr 2+ , and Ba 2+ ) Using Anion Exchange Method journal August 2006
In Situ Bioreduction of Uranium (VI) to Submicromolar Levels and Reoxidation by Dissolved Oxygen journal August 2007
Relative Reactivity of Biogenic and Chemogenic Uraninite and Biogenic Noncrystalline U(IV) journal August 2013
Reductive Precipitation of Uranium(VI) by Zero-Valent Iron journal November 1998
Spectroscopic Confirmation of Uranium(VI)−Carbonato Adsorption Complexes on Hematite journal July 1999
How Amidoximate Binds the Uranyl Cation journal February 2012
Uranium Sorption with Functionalized Mesoporous Carbon Materials journal October 2013
Quantifying the binding strength of U( vi ) with phthalimidedioxime in comparison with glutarimidedioxime journal January 2014
Amidoxime-functionalized magnetic mesoporous silica for selective sorption of U( vi ) journal January 2014
XAFS investigation of polyamidoxime-bound uranyl contests the paradigm from small molecule studies journal January 2016
Amidoxime-modified mesoporous silica for uranium adsorption under seawater conditions journal January 2015
Sequestering uranium from seawater: binding strength and modes of uranyl complexes with glutarimidedioxime journal January 2012
A novel mesoporous material for uranium extraction, dihydroimidazole functionalized SBA-15 journal January 2012
Sonochemical functionalization of mesoporous carbon for uranium extraction from seawater journal January 2013
Thermodynamic studies of U(vi) complexation with glutardiamidoxime for sequestration of uranium from seawater journal January 2013
Recovery of Uranium from Seawater: A Review of Current Status and Future Research Needs journal January 2013
Reoxidation of Biogenic Reduced Uranium: A Challenge Toward Bioremediation journal January 2014
Chemical Forms of Uranium in Artificial Seawater journal February 1982
Uranium Adsorption Properties of Hydrous Titanium Oxides in Seawater journal May 1987
The importance of accurate crystal structure determination of uranium minerals. II. Soddyite (UO2)2(SiO4).2H2O journal January 1992
Hydrogen uranyl phosphate tetrahydrate, a hydrogen ion solid electrolyte journal December 1978
ATHENA , ARTEMIS , HEPHAESTUS : data analysis for X-ray absorption spectroscopy using IFEFFIT journal June 2005
EPR evidence for maghemitization of magnetite in a tropical soil journal June 2007
XAFS for Everyone book May 2013
Multifrequency EPR study on radiation induced centers in calcium carbonates labeled with 13 C journal July 2015
Investigation about the copper adsorption on the chloropropylsilica gel surface modified with a nanostructured dendrimer DAB-Am-16: an analytical application for determination of copper in different samples journal November 2012
U6+ Minerals and Inorganic Compounds: Insights into an Expanded Structural Hierarchy of Crystal Structures journal December 2005
Analysis of uranyl-bearing phases by EXAFS spectroscopy: Interferences, multiple scattering, accuracy of structural parameters, and spectral differences journal July 2004
Extracting Minerals from Seawater: An Energy Analysis journal April 2010

Cited By (1)

Structural and computational characterization of a bridging zwitterionic-amidoxime uranyl complex journal January 2019

Similar Records

Uranium (VI) sorption onto selected mineral surfaces: Key geochemical parameters
Conference · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · OSTI ID:370465

Probing the interaction of U(VI) with phosphonate-functionalized mesoporous silica using solid-state NMR spectroscopy
Journal Article · Sun May 29 20:00:00 EDT 2016 · Dalton Transactions · OSTI ID:1281682

A Spectroscopic Study of the effect of Ligand Complexation on the Reduction of Uranium(VI) by Anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AH2DS)
Journal Article · Sun Nov 02 23:00:00 EST 2008 · Radiochimica Acta, 96(9-11):599-605 · OSTI ID:946379