Structure of uranium sorption complexes at montmorillonite edge sites

Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy at the uranium L-III-edge was used for determining the structural environment of aqueous uranyl sorbed onto montmorillonite. The study reveals that uranyl uptake at pH similar to 5- similar to 7 and at an initial uranyl concentration of 5 x 10(-5) M takes place at amphoteric surface hydroxyl sites as inner-sphere complex. The measured bond distances between uranium and the equatorial oxygen atoms are in the range of 2.34 Angstrom and 2.37 Angstrom indicating an inner-sphere coordination. At similar to 3.4 Angstrom the presence of a U-Al backscattering pair was determined. This backscattering pair indicates that the binding of the uranyl unit to amphoteric surface hydroxyl sites occurs preferred as a bidentate inner-sphere complex on aluminol groups.