Hi everybody
Some days ago i readed a piece of news where a fellow countrywoman chemist developed almost at home a method to treat the water contaminated with
radioative rejects with dehydrated and powdered banana skin.
The procedure her used was simple colleted some banana skins at their home, putted this in a common household toaster and then in the roof under the
strong sun at about 10 days. after this she collected the material and then blended this in a commom blender. the material her leaved to IPEN lab (at
a university in her city). the material was sieved ,and further drying was applied. The results was the follow:
the resulting powder was left into a solution containing uranium ions and the removal rate reached about 65%. And futher and further removal was
possible with sieving and adding more of the banana skin powder.
the experiments was did at room temperature (between 23 and 27°C) and the resulting mixture was stired for a pre-established time. The best results
was obtained with a time of about 40 minutes.
"the method presents very low costs and and to involve natural, biodegradable and abundant material", explain the researcher.
the method,also can be used with anothers radioative metals(such as thorium,etc) and in the fertilizers industry (some radioactive byproducts are
generated).
This researcher now develops a type of filter made with the banana skin to improve the removal of the radioactive rejects, and was the winner of the
"Young Scientist Prize".
Now i readed which this removal by the banana skin "is due the adsorption of the uranium positive ions by the negative particles of the banana skin".
So, a question which remain in my mind is: if the banana skin can adsorb even uranium ions, can do the same almost all "non reactive" organic
material?
ps: as "non reactive" material the only i know at the present time is the "activated carbon", but i wish to explain to myself if ANY suitable and
surprising material can do the same.
the sources, unfortunately, i cann't found in english version... but the pages i look are: http://www.barueri.sp.gov.br/sistemas/informativos/informati...
Activated carbon adsorbs (not absorbs) organic molecules, because it is roughly organic in nature: nonpolar.
Things like vegetable matter (fresh or decayed) and soil are able to grab onto ions by way of the myriad -OH and -COOH groups present. For instance,
kaolinite has an aluminum silicate crystal structure, with a bunch of OH ions thrown in. Where those OH ions are exposed to solution, ions can bind.
Decaying plant matter has all sort of carbon structures, from alcohols to ethers to esters to acids, with rings, chunks that used to be rings, strings
that might've been something else, etc. Almost all of these -OH bits can ionize, giving the structure some negative charge, attracting nearby ions.
Inevitably, some of these binding sites are going to be just the right shape to hold certain ions.
Supposedly, cilantro works well at chelating heavy metals too. Bananna peel is a new one on me.
TimAqua_Fortis_100% - 3-6-2007 at 07:05
Thanks for the info 12AXT . And sorry by ressuciting my own thread..
hmm so,is a potential adsorber agent almost anything organic ?
note: the creation of this thread was only to extend my little theoretical knowledges on the subject, because buying someting exotic such as uranium
metal is quite difficult to me.(although i know a local lab which have some in stock...
off (sorry again) :the only thing i can not understand is why some pyros use this stuff in their pyro stuffs?
i've heard in some places (such United Nuclear ) which metals such uranium and thorium possess some effects in pyrotechnics such as another kind of spark effect... this is
right? (even with good results i cannot agree with spraying such things on the ground)
For the happy people living in others countries, finding , buying and experimenting with uranium minerals , metal and alloys seems to be quite easy...
[Edited on 3-6-2007 by Aqua_Fortis_100%]12AX7 - 3-6-2007 at 07:37
They do??
Uranium and thorium are reactive metals and, as such, are certainly capable of producing spark effects. I would guess uranium is too reactive, and as
filings it would oxidize (pyrophorically or not) completely to uranium oxide (UO2 I believe). Thorium might be stable enough, but its price,
availability, stability and health pale in comparison to, say, magnesium.
TimAqua_Fortis_100% - 3-6-2007 at 07:50
Yes, they do (but very few with some further money ,i think)
this patent cite ALSO of the use of uranium salts in colored lights ..
IIRC in FTP, one document cites also the use as "incendiary metal". Other incendiary metals include zirconium, magnesium, titanium, and depleted uranium. They all burn at very high temperatures....
but sorry, i cannot was able to find again the document/text which i read about spark effetcts.. but i'm almost certain which also anyone can make
this use.
EDIT (sorry by off topic - again): you explained which the uranium will are oxidised to UO2 ..have these oxides (uranium, thorium) the same tendency
of MgO in "black body" radiation?
[Edited on 3-6-2007 by Aqua_Fortis_100%]
[Edited on 3-6-2007 by Aqua_Fortis_100%]
[Edited on 3-6-2007 by Aqua_Fortis_100%]not_important - 3-6-2007 at 08:15
That patent days
Quote:
Other metal salts such as cadmium, uranium, gold, mercury, arsenic and lead
which is typical patent cover-all-bases even if you haven't tried it yourself. I doubt anyone is going to use gold in fireworks, and that it would
give any colours.Aqua_Fortis_100% - 3-6-2007 at 10:49
not_important ,Thanks for the advise.
Anyway , i'm interested in to conduct some experiments in this field.. i heard which some smoke detectors have some radioative Am-241 in it .. And
some kinds of old paints have some thorium also.
there is others potential sources for conducting radioative experiments as this?
edit: the Geiger-Müller device is also quite hard to find.. there is a DIY kind of this?
