Effect of current, time, type of feed and cathode on electroplating process of uranium solution

Electroplating of uranyl nitrate and process effluent has been carried out in order to collect uranium contained therein using Pt/Pt and Pt/SS electrodes at various current and time values. The materials used as electrode were Pt (platinum) and SS (Stainless Steel). Feed solution of 250 mL was entered into a beaker glass equipped with Pt anode - Pt cathode or Pt anode - SS cathode and connected to direct current source from DC power supply at various current values and for various time periods so that uranium precipitated and deposited onto the cathode. Upon deposition completion, the cathode was removed and weighed to determine weight of precipitates, while the solution was analyzed to determine uranium concentration decrease after electroplating process. The experiment shows that a relatively good time to acquire uranium deposit at the cathode was 1 hour at 7 ampere, with uranyl nitrate as feed and Pt (platinum) as cathode. In these conditions, uranium deposit attached to the cathode amounted to 74.96 % of the original weight of uranium oxide in the feed or 206.5 mg by weight. The use of Pt cathode for uranyl nitrate feed, and SS and Pt cathodes for effluent feed resulted in uranium specific weight at the cathode of 12.99 mg/cm², 2.4 mg/cm² and 5.37 mg/cm² respectively for 7 Ampere current for 1 hour electroplating time. (author)