Graphene oxide-facilitated uranium transport and release in saturated medium: Effect of ionic strength and medium structure

Abstract

Natural subsurface environment is a complex heterogeneous system. To investigate the effect of ionic strength (IS) and heterogeneity on the transport and remobilization of graphene oxide (GO)-facilitated uranium (U(VI)) in saturated porous media, column experiments were performed by the injection of U(VI) alone and U(VI)+GO mixtures into homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media under low and high ionic strength (1 and 50 mM) conditions, and then the columns were successively flushed with background solution and DI water. Results showed that when U(VI) only was introduced into the columns, IS had little effect on the migration of U(VI) alone in both media and the presence of preferential flow in heterogeneous media slightly enhanced the mobility of U(VI). As U(VI)+GO mixtures were injected into the columns, GO showed strong mobility at low IS and high released peak at high IS. The appearance of GO significantly enhanced U(VI) transport in both media. Under low IS condition, the mobility of U(VI) was significantly enhanced at the injection phase, and the medium heterogeneity further promoted the amount of GO-sorbed U(VI) transport. At high IS, less GO-sorbed U(VI) was observed during injection phase, and a large amount of retained GO-sorbed U(VI) were released with GO remobilization during water flushing phase, and the release showed the longer-tailing phenomenon and the release amount was more pronounced in heterogeneous media. The findings in this study showed that the coupled effect of solution chemistry and media heterogeneity played important roles on GO-facilitated U(VI) transport and release in soil and groundwater system.