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The adsorption of U(VI) by albite during acid in-situ leaching mining of uranium

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Abstract

Uranium adsorption experiment was conducted to study the influencing factors and the adsorption mechanisms. The results show that the acidified albite hardly absorbs U(VI) at pH < 4, indicating that it doesn’t affect U(VI) recovery in in-situ leaching process. However, the adsorption percentage of U(VI) quickly increased to 84.9% at pH = 6, then, gradually decreased, with a value always above 40%. Therefore, the acidified albite can prevent U(VI) migration in the post-mining groundwater to a certain extend. The maximum adsorption capacity is 0.520 mg/g. The adsorption of U(VI) on the acidified albite is dominated by complexation and charge attraction.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China-- Xinjiang Joint Fund (Grant No. U1703123), Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province (No. 18C0460) and the Innovation Project for Graduate students of University of South China (203YXC001). We thank both reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, China

    Peng Wang, Kaixuan Tan, Yongmei Li, Wenzhou Xiao, Zhenzhong Liu & Yang Xu

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Hunan City University, Yiyang, 413000, China

    Wanyu Tan

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  1. Peng Wang
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Correspondence to Kaixuan Tan or Yongmei Li.

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Wang, P., Tan, K., Li, Y. et al. The adsorption of U(VI) by albite during acid in-situ leaching mining of uranium. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 2185–2193 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08254-9

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