Adsorption of cesium on minerals: A review

Mechanism of Strong Affinity of Clay Minerals to Radioactive Cesium: First-Principles Calculation Study for Adsorption of Cesium at Frayed Edge Sites in Muscovite

“…[2][3][4] So far, the reason for this has been puzzling. From the 1950s to 1980s, the global fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapon testing 5) and the release of large amounts of radionuclides by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident 6) caused the worldwide deposition of radioactive Cs on topsoil.…”

“…Consequently, mica, a type of 2:1 phyllosilicate, is well known to tightly adsorb Cs by the substitution of an interlayer cation with Cs. [2][3][4] Figure 1 schematically displays the crystalline structure of mica, in which the 2:1 unit layer comprises an octahedral sheet sandwiched by two tetrahedral sheets and the 2:1 layers are bounded by cations, resulting in a periodic stacked structure along the c-axis. The central elements of the tetrahedron and octahedron are silicon and aluminum, respectively, and silicon is partly substituted with aluminum.…”

Reduced adsorption of caesium on clay minerals caused by various humic substances

“…This has been suggested by Livens (1995, 1996). The strong a$nity of FES for caesium is thought to arise because Cs has a small hydration energy and so loses its hydration shell, forming a strong interaction with both clay platelets thereby closing the FES (Sawhney, 1972;Cornell, 1993). The presence of a macromolecule within, or at the outer edge of, the FES would impede or limit its collapse and so decrease its a$nity for Cs.…”

“…Adsorption of caesium on soil constituents is one of the factors which determines the availability of radiocaesium to biological systems. It is well known that caesium is strongly adsorbed on clay minerals (Sawhney, 1972;Maes & Cremers, 1986;Cornell, 1993). This adsorption is highly speci"c, particularly on illitic materials which are thought to contain a small proportion of sites, frayed edge sites (FES), which have a very strong a$nity for caesium (Brouwer, Baeyens, Maes & Cremers, 1983).…”

The distribution of 137Cs, K, Rb and Cs in plants in a Sphagnum-dominated peatland in eastern central Sweden

“…In soils with high clay content, there is low bioavailability and low vertical migration rate 54 of radiocaesium due to its binding to some clay minerals (Cornell, 1993;Wauters et al, 55 1996; Rosén et al, 1999). In nutrient-poor but organic-matter-rich forest soils, the 56 vertical migration rate of 137 Cs is also low but the bioavailability is often high, 57 particularly for mycorrhizal fungi (Olsen et al, 1990;Vinichuk and Johansson, 2003;58 Vinichuk et al, 2004).…”