Desorption behavior of tritiated water from organic functionalized mesoporous silica.

The desorption and enrichment of tritiated water from organic functionalized mesoporous SBA-15 were investigated. The desorption behavior of tritiated water was dependent on the nature of the organic functional group present i.e., COOH, SO 3 H, and NH 2 . Enriched tritiated water was obtained by thermal desorption from SO 3 H and NH 2 grafted SBAs after spontaneous desorption of tritiated water at 25 °C. Although the volumetric amount of concentrated tritiated water was small, the concentration ratios of tritiated water thermally desorbed and at 25 °C were 1.2 and 1.3 for SO 3 H and NH 2 grafted SBA, respectively. In contrast, COOH grafted SBA showed a lower T concentration after thermal desorption. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies using deuterated water (D 2 O) indicated the presence of strong interactions between COO groups and D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]