• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.358-360
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• 2007

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• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1322-1332
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• 2019

In this paper, we systematically investigated the influence of some selected ligands on the U-phosphate precipitation induced by soil bacteria. These organics are widely ranging from acetate, lactate, salicylate and citrate to oxalate. The results revealed that uranium could be biomineralized on bacteria as $UO_2HPO_4{\cdot}4H_2O$ or $(UO_2)_3(PO_4)_2{\cdot}4H_2O$. The influence of organic ligands on the biomineralization had clear-cut correlations with its complexation abilities to uranyl. It was clearly found that the U-phosphate biomineralization was affected noticeably by the strong ligands (oxalate and citrate). Further study discovered that when the organic ligands were uncompetitive with biotic $PO_4^{3-}$ for uranyl, the transformation of uranyl species from ${\beta}-UO_2(OH)_2$ colloidal particles to free $UO_2^{2+}$-ligands ions could facilitate the U-phosphate biomineralization. However, when the organic ligands competed with biotic $PO_4^{3-}$ for uranyl, the U-phosphate biomineralization were inhibited. Our results highlight the importance of complex interactions of strong organic ligands with uranyl during the bacterial precipitation of U-P compounds and thus for the mobilization and immobilization of radio-nuclides in the nature.