Sorption modelling by Gibbs energy minimisation: Towards a uniform thermodynamic database for surface complexes of radionuclides

Abstract

Summary Radionuclide sorption on mineral-water interfaces can be thermodynamically modelled, similar to solid-solution aqueous-solution systems (only in chemical elemental stoichiometry), if definitions of the standard and reference states, surface activity terms (SAT), and elemental stoichiometries of surface-bound species are unequivocally established. A pre-requisite is that a unique common value of the reference (site) density (Γo) must be part of the definitions of standard and reference states, while the sample- and surface-specific maximum density parameters (Γmax) be included into the SAT corrections to reproduce saturation of physically available adsorption sites instead of introducing the additional mass balance constraints. Subsequently, the standard partial molal properties of surface complexes at multiple surface types on different sorbents can be found, comparable with the standard molar properties of solids, gases and aqueous species. Using surface complexation models (SCM) of U(VI) adsorption on quartz and amorphous silica (SiO2) phases in GEM (Gibbs energy minimization) implementation, a feasible way is shown how to construct a uniform, internally consistent thermodynamic dataset for surface species of radionuclides; to use standard partial molal Gibbs energies Go 298 of surface species in sorption modelling; how to convert Go 298 values from/to log K or intrinsic adsorption constants log Kint to use in the law-of-mass action (LMA) speciation codes, and finally, into “smart Kd” values for the applications related to waste repository performance assessment.