Fenton-like treatment for reduction of simulated carbon-14 spent resin

Abstract Spent resins with 14C are enlisted among the most problematic radioactive wastes. In current study, we successfully prepared the simulated 14C-loaded spent resins using HCO3-, and for the first time the Fenton-like treatment of simulated 14C-loaded spent resins were compared with fresh Amberlite IRN-150 resin (without simulated 14C loading) by optimizing the influential reaction parameters. The experimental results revealed that 91.26% weight loss and 85.47% in TOC removal were achieved for fresh Amberlite IRN-150 resin (without simulated 14C loading) using 0.35 M Cu(II) catalyst, 30 % H2O2 as oxidant at pH 2, and 90 + 3 °C temperature for 4 h reaction time. However, the simulated 14C-loaded spent resin using HCO3- exhibited 87.34% weight loss under the similar reaction conditions. The reduction in weight loss (%) of simulated 14C-loaded spent resin was attributed to the presence of HCO3- on the resins, which could produce the carbonate radical (CO3-∙) of lower oxidation capability as compared to hydroxyl radical and in turn affect the efficacy of Fenton-like treatment for simulated 14C-loaded spent resin. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses were used to characterize and the results also supported the resin’s degradation.