Stabilization/Solidification of radioactive molten salt waste via gel-route pretreatment.

The volatilization of radionuclides during the stabilization/solidification of radioactive wastes at high temperatures is one of the major problems to be considered in choosing suitable wasteforms, process, material systems, etc. This paper reports a novel method to convert volatile wastes into nonvolatile compounds via a sol-gel process, which is different from the conventional method using metal-alkoxides and organic solvents. The material system was designed with sodium silicate (Si) as a gelling agent, phosphoric acid (P) as a catalyst/stabilizer, aluminum nitrate (Al) as a property promoter, and H20 as a solvent.

Adsorption behavior of propylamine on activated carbon fiber surfaces as induced by oxygen functional complexes.

In this study, the surfaces of activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were modified by nitric acid to introduce surface oxygen complexes and to observe the influence of those complexes on the propylamine adsorption of the ACFs. It was found that the oxygen complexes including carboxylic and phenolic groups were predominantly increased, resulting in the increase of total surface acidity. However, the specific surface areas and the total pore volumes of the modified ACFs were decreased by 5-8% due to the increased blocking (or demolition) of micropores in the presence of newly introduced complexes.

Effect of acidic treatment on metal adsorptions of pitch-based activated carbon fibers.

In this work, the pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were prepared by nitric acid to investigate the multi-metal adsorption in interfacial and textural points of view. N2/77 K adsorption isotherm characteristics, including the specific surface area and micropore volume, were studied by BET specific surface area and t-plot methods, respectively. As a result, the specific surface area of the almost neutral ACFs in nature significantly decreased with nitric acid treatment, probably due to the widening of micropores.

Studies on pore structures and surface functional groups of pitch-based activated carbon fibers.

The present study concerns the physical activation and chemical oxidation of pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) as ways to improve the adsorption properties. The surface oxides of the ACFs studied were determined by Boehm's titration and the pore structures were studied by the BET method with N(2)/77 K adsorption. Also, the adsorption properties of the ACFs were investigated with chromium ion adsorption by different adsorption models.