Adsorption of Ru, Ce and Eu radionuclides within naturally precipitated polycrystalline calcium carbonate under acidic environment

摘要

Ru-106, Ce-144 and Eu152+154 radiotracers sorption experiments (pH: 1-6) have been carried out with polycrystalline columnar/microcrystalline calcite and aragonite obtained from a stalagmite of Dharamjali cave, India. The different domains of the sample were powdered and thoroughly studied using electron microscopic and X-ray spectroscopic techniques. Both Ru-106 and Ce-144 exhibited higher sorption within calcite varieties compared to aragonite and increased with rising pH, while it showed reverse relation in case of Eu152+154. Further, it is noted that aragonite offers the highest K (d) values for Eu152+154, whereas Ru-106 and Ce-144 prefer calcite.