A new approach for selective Cs+ separation from simulated nuclear waste solution using electrodriven cation transport through hollow fiber supported liquid membranes

Abstract

The present work describes a novel and cleaner approach for large scale (litre) separation of cesium from simulated nuclear waste solutions by electrodriven transport through a hollow fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM) containing chlorinated cobalt dicarbollide as the carrier. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on electrodriven cation transport through HFSLM. The transport selectivity of Cs+ over Na+ and other fission products was studied from synthetic nuclear waste solutions. An attempt has also been made to pre-concentrate radio-cesium from an environmental sample containing very low level of 137Cs (≤ 10–12M) with excellent transport efficiency. A very high decontamination factor of cesium over Na+ other metal ions have been obtained for all types of feed solution. For neutral feed solution, the current efficiency for the Cs+ transport has been found to be 100%. The present work certainly adds a new dimension to the ongoing membrane based separations.