• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2004

Illite has been known to adsorb Cs preferentially to other alkali cations, especially at lower Cs concentration due to the frayed edge site. This frayed edge site was only verified by isotherm experiments, but not by other analytical methods. To investigate the Cs sorption properties on the surface of illite, artificially weathered illite with increasing frayed edge sites was reacted with Cs at different solution concentrations. The illite was weathered f3r 1 hour, 2 days, 14 days in 0.001 M HCl solution. With increasing reaction time, increasing amount of K in solution was observed, indicating formation of frayed edges by weathering, which was also verified by XRD, SEM, and TEM analysis. Original and weathered illites were converted to the homoionic Na form and reacted with $10^{-3}$ / ～ $10^{-7}$ M CsCl solutions for 24 hour. The aspect of Cs sorption was clearly distinguished around $10^{-5}$ M Cs concentration. The relative Cs amount sorbed on illite at low concentration (<10$^{-5}$ M) was higher than high concentration and increased with decreasing Cs concentration. In general, the amount of sorbed Cs increases with increasing weathering time and this trend is more noticeable at lower concentration while not much differentiated with weathering time at high concentration. These results indicate that the selective Cs sorption site exists in illite at low concentration, known as frayed edge site, and the number of those sites increases with weathering time.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.255-263
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• 2015

To investigate the effect of the weathering process of biotite on Cs sorption, sorption experiment of Cs with $10^{-3}M$ solution was carried out on the biotite reacted at different reaction times at pH 2 and 4, and 1 M solutions of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Rb, and Cs. Peak changes were observed for some samples by XRD, indicating that new mineral phase formed by biotite weathering. Among several factors, cations in solutions have the most significant influence on the mineralogical changes. The samples reacted with Na showed the most outstanding change with increasing peak width and appearance of $12{\AA}$ peak and $14{\AA}$ peak. This new peaks indicate the formation of hydrobiotite and vermiculite. The new peaks had stronger peak intensity for the sample reacted at pH 4 than that at pH 2, probably due to the fast dissolution of small particles and edges and resultant decrease in the formation of expandable layers. The biotite reacted at Mg solution showed small intensity at $14{\AA}$. Based on XRD results, the degree of biotite weathering was in the order of Na, Mg, and Ca. The samples reacted with K, Rb, Cs solutions did not show noticeable mineralogical changes caused by weathering. The amount of sorbed Cs on weathered biotite showed close relationship with the degree of weathering indicated by XRD. At both pH 2 and 4, the biotite reacted with Na solution showed the highest Cs sorption, and those with Mg and Ca solutions showed the next highest ones. The sorbed amounts of Cs on the bitote reacted with K, Rb, Cs solutions were relatively low. This indicates that at the Cs concentration ($10^{-3}M$) which we used for this experiment and which was much higher than the maximum Cs concentration sorbed on the frayed edge site, expandable layer plays more important role than frayed edge. In the cases of K, Rb, and Cs solutions, Cs sorption was decreased because K is the same cations as the one in the interlayer or the sorption of Rb and Cs on the frayed edge prevents the formation of expandable layers.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 2018

Radioactive cesium($^{137}Cs$) can be released into the environment through severe nuclear accidents such as the Chernobyl and Fukushima, The $^{137}Cs$ is one of major monitoring radionuclides due to its chemical toxicity, ${\gamma}$ radiation and long half-life($t_{1/2}=30.2yrs$). It has been known well that illite adsorb selectively and strongly the cesium due to frayed edge sites. The quantity of the FES in the illite could be controlled by weathering processes. Therefore, this study was modified illite samples through artificial weathering in the laboratory to increase sorption efficiency for cesium. Abundant interlayer cations(i.e., K, Ca) were eluted within 1 day, while Si and Al were gradually released from the crystal structure. In addition, broad peaks of XRD indicated the occurrence of chemical weathering. The cesium sorption distribution coefficients increased up to approximately 2 times after the weathering. These results suggested that sorption capacity of illite could be enhanced for cesium through artificial weathering under low temperature.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.6 s.175
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• pp.689-697
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• 2005

Mineralogical composition, $^{137}Cs$ activity, total organic carbon (TOC), and particle size of marine sediments near Wuljin Nuclear Powerplant were analyzed and the relationships among those components were investigated. The particle sizes of sediments were equivalent to sand size and in the range of $-0.48\~3.6\;Md\phi$. TOC contents and $^{137}Cs$ activities were in the range of $0.06\~1.75\%$ and minimum detectable activity (MDA) $\~4.0Bq/kg-dry$ with the average value of $1.15{\pm}0.62$ Bq/kg-dry, respectively. The sediments in study area were characterized by large particle size and small TOC contents, and $^{137}Cs$ activity compared with other marine sediments. The main mineral components were quartz and feldspar (albite, microcline, and small amount of orthoclase) with small amount of pyroxene, calcite, hornblende. Minerals with $10{\AA}$ XRD peak (mainly biotite) and chlorite were also identified. Among those minerals, biotite shows the linear relationship with $^{137}Cs$ content probably due to the frayed edge site (FES) on biotite or small amount of mixed illite. However, TOC content shows most linear relationship with $^{137}Cs$ content because no significant amount of clay minerals, which can adsorb significant amount of Cs, were observed in the study area, indicating that the distribution of $^{137}Cs$ in this study area was more significantly affected by the TOC content than mineral composition.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.229-238
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• 2016

This study evaluated potential application of illite, which is produced at Yeongdong area in Korea, to remove radiocesium released to environmental system through severe nuclear accidents. The Yeongdong illite was formed by metamorphose of micaceous schist in hydrothermal condition, and composed of quartz, illite, and albite. Sorption distribution coefficient ($K_d$) of cesium by the Yeongdong illite was higher than the $K_d$ values for other clay minerals. It may be affected by preferential adsorption of cesium to Frayed Edge Sites (FES) on illite. Nonlinear isotherm models were suitable to describe the sorption processes for the Yeongdong illite. Its max. single layer capacity was $250,000{\mu}g\;kg^{-1}$ for cesium. Therefore, the Yeongdong illite could be an efficient and economic sorbent to prevent dispersion of radiocesium, and apply for remediation.