Sorption of radioactive cobalt in natural Mexican clinoptilolite

The ability of a natural Mexican clinoptilolite to sorb radioactive cobalt from aqueous solution was studied. The zeolite was stabilized partially with sodium and the content of Na+ in the samples was determined by neutron activation analysis. Ion exchange experiments were performed with solution labeled with radioactive 60Co at pH 6.5. XRD patterns were used to verify if the crystallinity of the aluminosilicate was affected by ionic exchange. A fast sorption uptake was observed and it was found that 0.408 meq/g of zeolite of Na+ ions were replaced by cobalt ions, followed by a desorption process where the uptake decrease to 0.314 meq/g of zeolite. This behavior is a consequence of the partial dehydration of the zeolite. (author)