Potential-modulated intercalation of alkali cations into metal hexacyanoferrate coated electrodes. 1998 annual progress report

Abstract

'This program is studying potential-driven cation intercalation and deintercalation in metal hexacyanoferrate compounds, with the eventual goal of creating materials with high selectivity for cesium separations and long cycle lifetimes. The separation of radiocesium from other benign cations has important implications for the cost of processing a variety of cesium contaminated DOE wasteforms. This report summarizes results after nine months of work. Much of the initial efforts have been directed towards quantitatively characterizing the selectivity of nickel hexacyanoferrate derivatized electrodes for intercalating cesium preferentially over other alkali metal cations. Using energy dispersive xray spectroscopy (ex-situ, but non-destructive) and ICP analysis (ex-situ and destructive), the authors have demonstrated that the nickel hexacyanoferrate lattice has a strong preference for intercalated cesium over sodium. For example, when ions are reversibly loaded into a nickel hexacyanoferrate thin film from a solution containing 0.9999 M Na{sup +} and 0.0001 M Cs{sup +}, the film intercalates 40% as much Cs{sup +} as when loaded from pure 1 M Cs{sup +} containing electrolyte (all electrolytes use nitrates as the common anion). The authors have also shown that, contrary to the common assumptions found in the literature, a significant fraction of the thin film is not active initially. A new near infrared laser has been purchased and is being added to the Raman spectroscopy facilities to allow in-situ studies of the intercalation processes.'