Ultrasonic-assisted dissolution of U3O8 in carbonate medium

Ultrasound-assisted dissolution of U3O8 powder in carbonate solution was explored to determine if and how ultrasound act during the dissolution. The variation of U3O8 solid particles and uranyl complexes under ultrasound treatment and magnetic stirring was observed in carbonate media. The results show that the use of ultrasound can increase the solubility and dissolution rate of U3O8 powder than that under magnetic stirring. The crush of U3O8 particles and the reduction of the activation energy (Ea, kJ/ mol) of U3O8 dissolution reaction were observed, which both play an important role in the ultrasonic-assisted dissolution of U3O8 in carbonate-peroxide solution. Meanwhile, there is no observation of the ultrasound effect on the distribution of uranyl species and hydrolysis of uranyl complexes during the ultrasound treatment in carbonate-peroxide solution. Although the generation of center dot OH radicals under ultrasound (22 +/- 2 kHz) was observed, the oxidation of center dot OH had little effect on the dissolution of U3O8 in the carbonate-peroxide solution system.(c) 2022 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Ultrasound-assisted dissolution of U3O8 powder in carbonate solution was studied, and it was found that ultrasound can increase the solubility and dissolution rate of U3O8, accompanied by the crush of U3O8 particles and the reduction of activation energy. However, the distribution of uranyl species and hydrolysis of uranyl complexes were not affected by ultrasound.