A Review of Information on Ferrocyanide Solids for Removal of Cesium from Solutions

Abstract

Ferrocyanide solids have important applications to the removal of radioactive cesium from nuclear waste solutions. These materials are prepared by mixing soluble ferrocyanides and salts of divalent transition metals or other divalent cations. The simple precipitations most commonly give very fine particles or slimes of variable compositions. Special preparation procedures have been developed to control the compositions or to prepare granular solids suitable for column operation. The removal of cesium from solutions has been measured for many different ferrocyanide solids. Some of these solids show an exchange of K⁺, Na⁺, or NH₄ ⁺ for cesium, but many show sorptions of cesium without a true ion exchange. The performance for cesium removal is described by measurements of the distribution coefficients for cesium with large excesses of ferrocyanides, the capacity for cesium with excess cesium in solution, and the rates of cesium removal. The chemical and physical stability, the solubility, and the elution or recovery requirements for ferrocyanide solids are important to practical applications. These properties are reviewed along with several of the proposed applications.