An electrochemical technique for sensing uranium adsorption and desorption

Bethany Kersten; Rohan Akolkar; Christine E Duval

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2023.342003

An electrochemical technique for sensing uranium adsorption and desorption

Anal Chim Acta. 2023 Dec 15:1284:342003. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.342003. Epub 2023 Nov 8.

Authors

Bethany Kersten¹, Rohan Akolkar¹, Christine E Duval²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave, 44106, Cleveland, OH, USA.
² Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave, 44106, Cleveland, OH, USA. Electronic address: ced84@case.edu.

PMID: 37996162
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.342003

Abstract

Uranium is a toxic, heavy metal that can pose elevated health risks if leached into the environment. Uranium mobility is dependent on many factors, including speciation, solution pH, ligands in solution, and presence of surfaces. Surface adsorption is one phenomenon that inhibits uranium mobility in the environment and is studied as a naturally occurring phenomenon as well an intentional tool for environmental remediation. This work presents and validates a potentiometric, electrochemical technique for sensing uranium adsorption on and desorption from an electrochemically active surface solely through changes of the electrode potential. This novel electrochemical technique presents a new lens to study adsorption that complements external techniques (e.g., spectroscopy). Indication of adsorption and desorption via the electrochemical technique are gravimetrically validated using an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance. This work contributes a unique, complementary technique that corroborates the adsorption of uranium on an electrode surface.

Keywords: Adsorption; Gravimetry; Potentiometry.