Determination of the conditional interaction constant between colloidal technetium(IV) and Gorleben humic substances

Varying pertechnetate (Tc(VII)) doses were reduced to Tc(IV) in the presence and absence of Gorleben humic substances with the aid of magnetite, a reducing Fe(II)-containing surface. In absence of humic substances dissolved Tc(IV) concentrations are over-saturated with respect to the known TcO2 · nH2O solubility and increase with increasing Tc(VII) dose due to the formation of a range of mononuclear to colloidal Tc(IV) species. In presence of dissolved humic substances, the Tc solubility is enhanced due to the additional interaction of dissolved Tc(IV) species with humic substances. Both in the absence and the presence of dissolved humic substances a sorption mechanism controls the distribution of the range of mononuclear to colloidal Tc(IV) species between the solid and the liquid phase. The proposed reaction mechanism between Tc(IV) and HS is represented by Σ[TcO(OH)2]n+HS = [TcO(OH)2]n − HS in which Σ[TcO(OH)2]n stands for the sum of monomeric and polynuclear (colloidal) Tc(IV) species present in the equilibrium solution. A log K-value of 2.9 (±0.3) was quantified from a modified Schubert approach which is based on the competition of HS and magnetite for all dissolved Tc(IV) species and was found independent of Tc–HS loading, Tc–magnetite loading and pH.