Potassium zinc hexacyanoferrate encapsulated hydro-gel beads for removal of radiocesium

The operations of nuclear installations (nuclear power reactors as well as nuclear fuel reprocessing and radioisotopes production facilities) generate large amounts of low level (LLW) radioactive wastes. Cesium radioisotopes stand as the most concerned fission products because of their high fission yield, long half-life and serious environmental impacts. Selective separation of cesium ions is a challenging task as these monovalent cations, can compete for reactive sites by other Group I monovalent cations as well as Group II divalent cations. Transition metal hexacyanoferrates have been reported to be the promising sorbents for separation of radioactive cesium from nuclear wastes over a wide pH range even in the presence of high salt loadings. However, these sorbents frequently exist only as powders and consequently are not readily adaptable to continuous processing such as column chromatography. Making these inorganic ion exchangers as microspheres or granular forms with the help of suitable polymeric materials improves the flow dynamics for column operations and expands their practical applications. Present investigation explores the sorption potential of the indigenously synthesized potassium zinc hexacyanoferrate (KZnHCF) encapsulated calcium alginate hydro-gel beads for the removal of radiocesium ion (¹³⁷Cs)