Uranium colloidal

Ocourrenoe — History — Treatment of Uranium Minerals — Preparation of Uranium—Ph37sioal Properties—Spectrum—Chemical Properties—Pyrophoric Uranium—Colloidal Uranium— Atomic Weight—Isotope.s of Uranium—Alloys. 

This removal may also include diffusion of soluble U(VI) from seawater into the sediment via pore water. Uranium-organic matter complexes are also prevalent in the marine environment. Organically bound uranium was found to make up to 20% of the dissolved U concentration in the open ocean." ° Uranium may also be enriched in estuarine colloids and in suspended organic matter within the surface ocean. " Scott" and Maeda and Windom" have suggested the possibility that humic acids can efficiently scavenge uranium in low salinity regions of some estuaries. Finally, sedimentary organic matter can also efficiently complex or adsorb uranium and other radionuclides. 

Porcelli D, Andersson PS, Wasserburg GJ, Ingri J, Baskaran M (1997) The importance of colloids and mires for the transport of uranium isotopes through the Kalis River watershed and Baltic Sea. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 61 4095-4113... 

Moulin V, Ouzounian G (1992) Role of colloids and humic substances in the transport of radio-elements through the geosphere. Appl Geochem (Suppl. Issue 1 179-186 Murakami T, Ohnuki T, Isobe H, Sato T (1997) Mobility of uranium during weathering. Am Mineral 82 888-899... 

In the Delaware and Chesapeake estuaries (USA), uranium shows distinctly nonconservative behavior at salinities <5 (Sarin and Church 1994 Church et al. 1996). This was suggested to be due to sedimentary redox processes in the extensive salt marshes in the Delaware and Chesapeake bays. From mass balance calculations it was concluded that almost two-thirds of the uranium in the tidal waters were retained in the sediments. It was also suggested that, extrapolated globally, uranium removal in salt marshes and marine wetlands, including mangroves, are important sinks for U that may responsible for up to 50% of the total marine removal (Church et al. 1996). Removal of U is also observed within the Baltic Sea, related to the association of U with colloids (see Section 2.5). 

Importance of particles and colloids for controlling estuarine uranium... 

Several studies have examined the partitioning of U on particles and colloids. Results from detailed sampling and particle separation in the Amazon estuary shows that most of the uranium at the Amazon River mouth is associated with particles (>0.4 im) and that >90% of the uranium in filtered water (<0.4 im) is transported in a colloidal phases (from a nominal molecular weight of 10 000 MW up to 0.4 im) (Swarzenski et al. 1995 Moore et al. 1996). Mixing diagrams for uranium in different size fractions in the Amazon estuary reveal that uranium in all size fractions clearly display both removal and substantial input during mixing. 

Figure 5. The in 0.2pm and 3 kD filtered water and colloids phase (3kD - 0.2pm) and particles (>0.2 pm) as well as material from sediment traps plotted versus conductivity in the low salinity zone (0-3) of the Kalix River estuary. The stippled area marks the reported annual range in at the Kalix river mouth, which show a substantial variation compared to the uranium concentration. Data from Andersson et al. (2001). Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science.

Murthy and Ryan [823] used colloid flotation as a means of preconcentration prior to neutron activation analysis for arsenic, molybdenum, uranium, and vanadium. Hydrous iron (III) oxide is floated in the presence of sodium decyl sulfate with small nitrogen bubbles from 1 litre of seawater at pH 5.7. Recoveries of arsenic, molybdenum, and vanadium were better than 95%, whilst that of uranium was about 75%. 

Uranium coprecipitated with aluminium phosphate, precipitate dissolved in nitric acid Adsorption onto colloidal ferric hydroxide... 

Adsorbing colloid flotation has been used to separate uranium from seawater [101]. 

To the filtered seawater (500 ml about 1.5 xg U) is added 0.05 M ferric chloride (3 ml), the pH is adjusted to 6.7 0.1 and the uranium present as (U02(C03)3)4- is adsorbed on the colloidal ferric hydroxide which is floated to the surface as a stable froth by the addition of 0.05% ethanolic sodium dodecyl sulfate (2 ml) with an air-flow (about 10 ml min-1) through the mixture for 5 min. The froth is removed and dissolved in 12 M hydrochloric acid-16 M nitric acid (4 1) and the uranium is salted out with a solution of calcium nitrate containing EDTA, and determined spectrophotometrically at 555 nm by a modification of a Rhodamine B method. The average recovery of uranium is 82% co-adsorbed WO4- and M0O4- do not interfere. 

The binding of thorium and uranium on hematite in the presence of natural organic matter. Colloids Surfaces A. 

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