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Extractive scintillating polymer sensors for trace-level detection of uranium in contaminated ground water.
- Source :
-
Analytica Chimica Acta . Dec2016, Vol. 947, p1-8. 8p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- This contribution describes the synthesis of robust extractive scintillating resin and its use in a flow-cell detector for the direct detection of uranium in environmental waters. The base poly[(4-methyl styrene)- co -(4-vinylbenzyl chloride)- co -(divinylbenzene)- co -(2-(1-napthyl)-4-vinyl-5-phenyloxazole)] resin contains covalently bound fluorophores. Uranium-binding functionality was added to the resin by an Arbuzov reaction followed by hydrolysis via strong acid or trimethylsilyl bromide (TMSBr)-mediated methanolysis. The resin was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and spectrofluorometry. Fluorophore degradation was observed in the resin hydrolyzed by strong acid, while the resin hydrolyzed by TMSBr-mediated methanolysis maintained luminosity and showed hydrogen bonding-induced Stokes' shift of ∼100 nm. The flow cell detection efficiency for uranium of the TMSBr-mediated methanolysis resin was evaluated at pH 4, 5 and 6 in DI water containing 500 Bq L −1 uranium-233 and demonstrated flow cell detection efficiencies of 23%, 16% and 7%. Experiments with pH 4, synthetic groundwater with 50 Bq L −1 uranium-233 exhibited a flow cell detection efficiency of 17%. The groundwater measurements show that the resins can concentrate the uranyl cation from waters with high concentrations of competitor ions at near-neutral pH. Findings from this research will lay the groundwork for development of materials for real-time environmental sensing of alpha- and beta-emitting radionuclides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00032670
- Volume :
- 947
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Analytica Chimica Acta
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 119440661
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2016.09.029