Adsorption of uranium(VI) and thorium(IV) by insolubilized humic acid from Ajloun soil – Jordan

Abstract

Humic acid from Ajloun soil has been extracted and insolubilized. The insolubilized humic acid (NaIHA) was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. Adsorption of U(VI) and Th(IV) by NaIHA was studied using batch technique at different temperatures (25.0, 35.0 and 45.0 °C) and at different pH values (1.00, 2.00 and 3.00). It was found that NaIHA has higher uptake for Th(IV) than U(VI), and that the metal ion uptake by NaIHA increased with pH and reached a maximum at pH = 3. The kinetic studies were done, and showed that the equilibrium time for each metal ion occurs at 6 h to achieve maximum uptake level. Adsorption data were evaluated according to the Pseudo second-order reaction kinetic. The metal ions uptake properties by the NaIHA fit Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption isotherms. Thermodynamic functions, ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° were determined for each metal ion. The positive values of ΔG° indicate that adsorption process is not highly favorable, while ΔH° values indicated that this process is endothermic. On the other hand, the process has positive entropy which means that the adsorption process increases the disorder of the system and it is entropy driven. Column experiments were used for the determination of metal ion loading capacity and desorption studies. The uptake capacities in column technique of U(VI) and Th(IV) ions are 2.63 and 4.85 mg metal ion/g NaIHA respectively. Recovery of U(VI) and Th(IV) ions was carried out by treatment of loaded insolubilized humic acid with 0.1 M and 1.0 M HNO3, the best recovery for U(VI) and Th(IV) ions were obtained when 1.0 M HNO3 was used.