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Change in the pH of NaI and methyl alkyl ketone solutions under gamma irradiation

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Abstract

The effects of dissolved chemicals such as NaOH, NaI, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) on solution pH after gamma irradiation were investigated. Upon irradiation with 1.6–24 kGy of gamma radiation (0.4–6 kGy h−1), the pH of the NaOH solutions decreased, while the OH− consumption increased with increasing initial solution pH. This was attributed to acid–base neutralization between the OH− in the solutions and the acidic species (HO2· and ·NO2) formed by irradiation. The pH of the acidic NaI solution increased after irradiation with 8 kGy dose (at 2 kGy h−1), which was attributed to I− oxidation by the products of water and air radiolysis. The pH values of the MIBK and MEK solutions decreased from 7 to 4.5 or lower upon irradiation with 40 kGy dose (at 10 kGy h−1), which indicates that the alkyl groups of the ketones do not significantly affect the rates of decomposition by irradiation. The pH of the mixed solution of ketone and NaI was in the range of 6.7–6.9 before irradiation but decreased to 4.5 after irradiation with 40 kGy dose. In the mixed solutions, CH3COR and I− competed with each other to contribute to pH change.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Nuclear Research and Development Program through a grant by the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea (No. 2017M2A8A4015281).

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  1. Minsik Kim and Sue Young Hong have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Chemistry Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111 Daedeok Daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-353, Republic of Korea

    Minsik Kim, Sue Young Hong, TaeJun Kim, Sang-Hyuk Jung & Jei-Won Yeon

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  1. Minsik Kim
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  2. Sue Young Hong
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  3. TaeJun Kim
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Correspondence to Jei-Won Yeon.

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Kim, M., Hong, S.Y., Kim, T. et al. Change in the pH of NaI and methyl alkyl ketone solutions under gamma irradiation. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 326, 121–127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07346-8

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