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Accurate determination of tetravalent uranium reduced by microorganisms via a potentiometric titration procedure

  • Shunzhang Chen , Yanxia Cheng , Qian Zeng , Ting Zhu , Feize Li , Tu Lan , Yuanyou Yang , Jijun Yang , Jiali Liao EMAIL logo and Ning Liu
Published/Copyright: September 22, 2022
Radiochimica Acta
From the journal Radiochimica Acta Volume 110 Issue 11

Abstract

Although bioreduction induced by microorganisms has been considered to play an important role in the chemical and migration behaviors of uranium in nature, the accurate determination of tetravalent uranium reduced by microorganisms is still difficult to achieve. In this work, potentiometric titration via K2Cr2O7 was used to quantitatively determine the microorganism reduced tetravalent uranium (U(IV)) for the first time. By evaluating the influence of microorganism substance content on the titration of U(IV), the appropriate determination range of U(IV) and biomass was confirmed, and U(IV) induced by bioreduction in three microorganisms was determined. With this method, U(IV) of more than 0.12 mg in microorganisms can be quantitatively measured with an accuracy of 2.2% and a precision of 1.3%, which has been established with the premise that the pretreatment biomass and quantity of U(IV) are in an appropriate range. Compared with the estimated values via the changes in hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) concentration in the bioreduction system, the results obtained by this method can more accurately reflect the quantity of U(IV) in microorganisms. This work can help us to better understand the bioreduction behavior of uranium in the environment.

Keywords: bioreduction; determination; microorganism; potentiometric titration; tetravalent uranium
Corresponding author: Jiali Liao, Key Laboratory of Radiation Physics and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P.R. China, E-mail:

Funding source: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 21876123

Funding source: Key Research and Development Program of Sichuan Province

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2020YFN0127

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21876123) and the Key Research and Development Program of Sichuan Province, China (No: 2020YFN0127).

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2022-0037).

Received: 2022-03-20
Accepted: 2022-07-30
Published Online: 2022-09-22
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

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  2. Contribution to “Diamond Jubilee of RCA”
  3. Chemical thermodynamics of ternary M-An(VI)-CO3 system (M = Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba)
  4. Original Papers
  5. Study of activation cross sections of proton induced reactions on natBa and natCe near their threshold energy regions
  6. Accurate determination of tetravalent uranium reduced by microorganisms via a potentiometric titration procedure
  7. Effect of gamma rays on Zn/Cu doped strontium borate glass system for dosimetric applications
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https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2022-0037
Keywords for this article
bioreduction; determination; microorganism; potentiometric titration; tetravalent uranium

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Contribution to “Diamond Jubilee of RCA”
  3. Chemical thermodynamics of ternary M-An(VI)-CO3 system (M = Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba)
  4. Original Papers
  5. Study of activation cross sections of proton induced reactions on natBa and natCe near their threshold energy regions
  6. Accurate determination of tetravalent uranium reduced by microorganisms via a potentiometric titration procedure
  7. Effect of gamma rays on Zn/Cu doped strontium borate glass system for dosimetric applications
  8. Determination of biological radioprotective characteristics of some natural organic compounds for radiation shielding applications
  9. Bi2O3–PbO–CdO–B2O3 glasses: competent candidates for radiation shielding
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