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Sorption of Cesium by Soils and Its Displacement by Salt Solutions¹

ABSTRACT

Cesium was sorbed by montmorillonite, illite, and kaolinite in quantities corresponding to exchange saturation and was displaced readily on leaching with 1N KCl or CaCl₂. Vermiculite and heated (600°C., 12 hours.) K-montmorillonite bound Cs tightly against displacement by CaCl₂ and AlCl₃, but not by KCl or NH₄Cl. Prolonged leaching with 1N KCl removed 97.5% of the Cs sorbed by heated K-montmorillonite, while 1N CaCl₂ eventually displaced 88%.

Potassium and Rb sorbed on vermiculite were displaced more rapidly by Ca or Mg than by monovalent ions, but this was not the case with heated K-montmorillonite.

The exchange-displacement behavior of Cs on vermiculite and heated K-montmorillonite suggests that this ion is unique in that its sorption in interlayer spaces leads to interplanar distances which admit K and NH₄ ions but greatly restrict the entry of Ca. Cesium, then, is not expected to follow the "fixation-release" rules that have been developed for K and NH₄.

Heated montmorillonite samples leached with mixtures of CsCl and other salts sorbed more Cs when the complementary ion was Ca or Al than when it was K or NH₄. Differences were especially pronounced at low equivalent fractions of Cs in the leaching solution, showing a larger preference by exchange sites for Cs over divalent than over monovalent ions. Apparent "specific sorption" of Cs against exchange with CaCl₂ occurred at quite large Cs saturations.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director, North Carolina Agr. Exp. Sta. as Paper No. 1479 in the Journal Series. Work performed under AEC Contract No. AT-(40-1)-2410.

² Professor of Soil Science, University of California, Riverside; Instructor of Soils, North Carolina State College, Raleigh; and Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, respectively.

Received for publication July 26, 1962. Accepted for publication October 23, 1962.