Selenium(IV) retention onto ilite

In the context of nuclear waste management, long-term safety assessments have shown that selenium-79, released from the solid waste matrix, could be one of the major isotopes contributing to the global radioactivity potentially reaching the biosphere. Selenium has a quite complex speciation, with four main oxidation states, depending on both the pH and the redox potential of the surrounding environment. Sorption onto minerals can strongly affect the availability and the mobility of selenium. It is thus of great importance to be able to characterize both at a macroscopic and a microscopic level the different processes (retention, reduction, surface precipitation, …) that can potentially take place.
Regarding the multi-barrier concept considered for deep underground storage of high level and long-lived radionuclides, clays are candidates as host rock as well as backfill materials. Clays like illite, kaolinite, montmorillonite and bentonite constitute the main phases of clay rocks, together with other compounds like iron oxides, titanium oxide, pyrite, calcite and organic matter. We decided to focus our work on Illite since it is an abundant and well crystallized clay mineral in soils.
Thus, retention properties of illite towards selenium(IV) have been investigated during this study, using a combination of both macroscopic and microscopic measurements.
Illite du Puy (France) has been used as the sorbing phase. It has been purified in order to remove auxiliary and minor phases to get a homo-ionic “Na-illite” clay. Then, batch experiments aiming at studying the sorption behaviour of selenium(IV) onto illite have been performed in NaClO4. The influence of the suspensions´pH, as well as the ionic strength effect has been investigated. All the experiments have been performed under anoxic conditions in a glove box under N2 atmosphere (O2 < 1 ppm). Selenium speciation in solution has been checked using Hydride Generation-Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy measurements. The oxidation state of the selenium species once sorbed onto the illite surface has been evidenced using X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy.
Electrophoresis measurements have also been performed during this work. Comparison between the zeta potential of the illite surfaces before and after selenium(IV) sorption has been done, to check whether the sorption takes place by chemical bonding formation or rather by electrostatic attraction.
Finally, ATR-FTIR measurements have been performed using an ATR ZnSe crystal. By comparison with former IR measurements concerning selenito-ligands containing complexes as well as phases with sorbed selenium species, the fashion binding of selenium(IV) onto illite has been evidenced.