Contribution to the study of the sorption of radionuclides on hydrated oxides

The mechanism of¹⁰⁶Ru(III),¹⁰⁶RuNO(II),¹⁴⁴Ce(III),¹⁴⁷Pm(III),⁸⁵Sr(II),¹³¹I⁻,³⁵SO ₄ ²⁻ , and H₂ ³²PO ₄ ²⁻ radionuclide sorption on hydrated ferrous, ferric, aluminium and chromic hydrated oxides was studied. The dependence of sorption on the pH has shown that in a certain range of pH values it is the ion exchange of the radionuclide for a proton or a hydroxyl group of the oxide that probably plays a decisive role in the sorption process. The sorption depends considerably on the pH in the whole range of studied, but its decrease with cations in alkaline media and its increase with I⁻ ion in acidic media does not agree with the above sorption mechanism. Similarly, the course of the dependence of sorption on the sorbent concentration does not indicate ion exchange to be the only mechanis, but it indicates a more complicated sorption process. Probably the sorption of colloidal forms of the radionuclides proceeds, too.