Radioactive waste treatment is earning worldwide awareness due to the harmful impact of radiation emitted
from these wastes to human health and environment. Clay can be used as effective adsorbent in order to remove
radioactive pollutants in aqueous solution, and have great potential for ion exchange technique. In our study we
investigated the montmorillonite clay using primitive model Grand canonical Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to
describe the ion exchange or competition between the counterions of different valences. Throughout the study
we introduced a formula representing the retention coefficient to quantify the ion exchange, which is essentially
proportional to the more common distribution coefficient Kd, and has the advantage of being dimensionless and
more suitable for theoretical cases. we emphasized on the effect of surface charge density of clay platelets
assumed to be negative, valence of the pollutants, and ground water reservoir concentrations of pollutants and of
other cations. It is found that the retention is increased by increasing the valence of the pollutants, and the
surface charge density, while it is decreased by increasing bulk concentration of pollutants and of other cations.
Also it is found that the presence of high concentration of monovalent is less serious for the retention than the
presence of multivalent ones.

Authors: Khawla Qamhieh and Zeid N. Qamhieh.

Title

Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects

Publisher

Elsevier

Publisher Country

Netherlands

Publication Type

Prtinted only

Volume

640

Year

2022

Pages

1-7