Preparation of pure TiO2 sorption material

Abstract

Determination of 236U/238U at natural ratios using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) requires overall purity of each step in the sample preparation procedures which are complex and include various chemicals. Therefore, the simplification of the procedures is desirable and can be done by implementing other effective separation materials. Among the prospective sorption materials, hydrated titanium dioxides showed promising properties for uranium extraction from various water samples. This paper shows the preparation of several titanium based sorption materials using an organic precursor and their characterization with several techniques in order to analyse crystal structure (XRPD, SEM, HRTEM, SAED) and residues of organic compounds (TG analysis and IR spectroscopy) and to quantify their sorption properties towards uranium. The practical sorption capacity of one of the prepared materials was as high as 260 mg of uranium per gram. AMS measurements showed that it is possible to prepare sufficiently pure titanium dioxides for the determination of 236U/238U ratio.