Abstract
Nuclear power industry still demands further research to improve the methods for the storage and the confinement of the hazardous radioactive wastes coming from the fission of radionuclide 235U. The volatile radioactive 129I (half-life time 15x107 years) is one of the most critical products coming from the reprocessing plants in the fuel-closed cycles. In the present thesis the family of coordination solid networks, known as Hofmann-type structures, was studied in the form as both bulk and supported nanoparticles for the selective entrapment of the molecular iodine. This set of investigated materials exhibited a general formula M'(L)[M''(CN)4] where M' = NiII or CoII; L = pyrazine, 4,4'-bipyridine, 4,4'-azopyridine; M'' = NiII, PdII or PtII. Initially, the material NiII(pz)[NiII(CN)4] and its analogue structures were precipitated as microcrystalline bulky compounds and fully characterized. The insertion of the iodine in the bulky host structures was performed with different methods: 1) adsorption of iodine in solutions of cyclohexane at room temperature; 2) adsorption of iodine vapours at 80 °C; 3) adsorption of iodine vapours at 80 °C in presence of water steam (for few selected materials). The different methods did not affect the nature of the confined iodine. For the entrapment in solution, results indicated that the Hofmann-type structures NiII(pz)[NiII(CN)4], NiII(pz)[PdII(CN)4] and CoII(pz)[NiII(CN)4] could host one I2 molecule per unit cell. The iodine resulted physisorbed as molecular iodine in interaction with the host structure. GCMC simulations confirmed the maximal capacities and indicated that iodine could interact with both the pyrazine and the coordinated cyanides. Experimentally, however, the modulation of the metals showed a slightly different strength of interaction I2-lattice bringing to a different lattice adaptation. The materials also could be fully regenerated since the complete desorption of iodine occurred before the decomposition of the host structure. Reiterated adsorption-desorption steps (3 cycles) on the networks NiII(pz)[NiII(CN)4] and NiII(pz)[PdII(CN)4] indicated an excellent structural resistance to cycling and a maintained high capacity. A different mechanism of confinement was detected for the structure NiII(pz)[PtII(CN)4] which reacted with iodine giving complex NiII(pz)[PtII/IV(CN)4].I-. Finally, the modulation of the organic ligand L indicated that the replacement of the ligand pyrazine with longer ligands, to obtain larger pores, had a detrimental effect on the maximal iodine loading due to a weaker confinement. After the study of the bulk materials, we considered the preparation of supported nanoparticles of NiII(pz)[NiII(CN)4] for the entrapment of iodine. The nanoparticles were obtained by a step-by-step method, impregnating a set of diammine-grafted mesoporous silicas with the precursors of NiII(pz)[NiII(CN)4]. We detected nanoparticles with mean size 2.8 nm by transmission electronic microscopy. The insertion of iodine in the nanoparticles was confirmed by FT-IR. Thermal treatments indicated that the portion of iodine inside the nanoparticles could be reversibly desorbed in the range 150-250 °C and reintroduced in a cyclic process. It was estimated that the amount of physisorbed iodine in the NPs, with respect to the amount of deposited NPs matched with the maximal capacity NiII(pz)[NiII(CN)4]@I2.