Desorption behavior of tritiated water from organic functionalized mesoporous silica

The desorption and enrichment of tritiated water from organic functionalized mesoporous SBA-15 were investigated. The desorption behavior of tritiated water was dependent on the nature of the organic functional group present i.e., COOH, SO3H, and NH2. Enriched tritiated water was obtained by thermal desorption from SO3H and NH2 grafted SBAs after spontaneous desorption of tritiated water at 25 °C. Although the volumetric amount of concentrated tritiated water was small, the concentration ratios of tritiated water thermally desorbed and at 25 °C were 1.2 and 1.3 for SO3H and NH2 grafted SBA, respectively. In contrast, COOH grafted SBA showed a lower T concentration after thermal desorption. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies using deuterated water (D2O) indicated the presence of strong interactions between COO groups and D.