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A newly developed selective grafted resin for radium

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Published/Copyright: March 17, 2026
Radiochimica Acta
From the journal Radiochimica Acta

Abstract

Radium analysis in natural waters remains a current challenge in the field of radiological monitoring, as well as for environmental concerns. A new Ra-selective grafted resin was developed in the present work; a calix[4]arene derivative functionalized with a crown-6 ether and two synergistic carboxylic groups serves as the selective chelating agent, while the support consists of SiO2. Its properties were investigated in the laboratory by coupling experimental data with a modelling approach. The resin was shown to be efficient for Ra within the pH range typical of natural waters (∼6–8). Its affinity for Ra was significantly higher than for other alkaline earth cations, although it remained sensitive to salt loading. This trend was confirmed by batch sorption tests conducted with both synthetic aqueous media and various natural water samples. The proposed resin appears promising for radium extraction and pre-concentration from natural waters.

Keywords: radium; chelating agent; selective resin; extraction; pre-concentration
Corresponding author: Gilles Montavon, SUBATECH, IMTAtlantique/CNRS Nuclear & Particles/Nantes Université, 4, rue Alfred Kastler, 44304 Nantes, France, E-mail:

Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. Deroo for some of the experiments performed. Funding by the LabCom 371 TESMARAC (ANR-19-LCV-002-01) and the CARAT project (PIA-PSPC; DC 3660071-1) 372 made this work possible. 373 F. Xu also acknowledges the financial support by the China Scholarship Council (CSC No. 374 201806380116).

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: FX: Investigation; SK: Investigation; A-L. N.: Writing – Review & Editing; S.H.: supervision Writing – Review & Editing, Funding Acquisition; K.D.: Investigation; Z.A.: supervision; C.L.: supervision; Writing – Review & Editing; A.G.: Writing – Review & Editing; J.R.: investigation; GM: Conceptualization, supervision, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Writing – Original Draft.

  4. Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.

  5. Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest.

  6. Research funding: LabCom TESMARAC (ANR-19-LCV-002-01) and the CARAT project (PIA-PSPC; DC 3660071-1).

  7. Data availability: Raw data are available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2025-0096).

Received: 2025-10-06
Accepted: 2026-02-11
Published Online: 2026-03-17

© 2026 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2025-0096
Keywords for this article
radium; chelating agent; selective resin; extraction; pre-concentration
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