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Browsing by Subject "FTIR"

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  • Silenius, Karola (2024)
    As part of the SAFER2028, ABCRad (Alternative Buffer/Backfill Characterization and Radionuclide Interactions) research project, two alternative bentonite materials supplied by Posiva Oy were investigated in this thesis. The aim of the thesis was to investigate and determine the sorption behavior of these two buffer material candidates, with a deliberate reference to a well- known Na-Wyoming type bentonite serving as a benchmark. In order to closely imitate conditions relevant to repository settings, a synthetic reference water was prepared, and the experiments were conducted within a glove box in N2 atmosphere excluding CO2 and O2. This thesis provides valuable perspectives on the behavior and attributes of the alternative bentonite materials, which is crucial for guiding decisions in the design of repositories for radioactive waste and strategies for managing spent nuclear fuel. More specifically, this thesis provides thermodynamic sorption models (TMS) for two risk-driving radionuclides, uranium (U) and cesium (Cs). Batch sorption isotherms were made using a 1:20 solid-to-liquid ratio including 0.5 g of bentonite in 10 cm3 of reference water. Gamma spectroscopy and Liquid Scintillation Counting (LSC) were employed for the analysis of reaction supernatants. Complementary to these techniques, additional bentonite properties, including Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and Exchangeable Cations (EC), were determined. Pre-characterization was done for the bentonites using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and the Specific Surface Areas (SSA) were determined. These analyses provide a comprehensive characterization of the alternative backfill materials under investigation. This thesis focuses on combining quantitative sorption data (e.g., distribution coefficient, Kd) with mechanistic understanding (e.g., FTIR spectroscopy). This contributes to an improved understanding of radionuclide sorption mechanisms, thereby bolstering safety considerations. The CEC determined for the bentonites, Laviosa, LMS, and Na-Wyoming were 87 (±0,048) meq/100 g, 95 (±0,34) meq/100 g, and 91 (± 1,23) meq/100 g, respectively. The distribution coefficient (Kd) values of uranium ranged from 130–135 cm3/g with Laviosa and 78–110 cm3/g with LMS, while those of cesium ranged from 130–280 cm3/g with Laviosa and from 150–425 cm3/g with LMS. Cesium demonstrated sorption of 95% within the 10-10 to 10-6 M range, decreasing slightly to 85–95% at concentrations up to 10-2 M. Uranium showed sorption in the range 80–100% across both clays, peaking at lower concentrations and declining at higher concentrations. These data align with those of the reference buffer material, indicating that these bentonites could potentially serve as feasible alternatives if they exhibit additional favorable sorption capacity with other risk-driving radionuclides (e.g., Eu, Ni, Th).
  • Hendrik, Nathaniel James (2017)
    Cocoa butter (CB) is the predominant continuous phase in chocolate systems and has a significant impact on the macroscopic properties of the end product. Conventional methods such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (pNMR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and polarized light microscopy (PLM) have been used to study CB crystallization primarily in bulk. Potential of alternative techniques to study crystallization such as Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) has been explored. The main objective of this thesis research was to study the feasibility of both conventional and alternative techniques to study CB crystallization in different matrices and in tempered conditions. Bulk fat (CB with 1%, 5% or without lecithin), suspensions (CB with 1% lecithin (on fat basis) and sucrose or inulin) and chocolates were sampled as such (non-tempered systems) subjected to a laboratory scale tempering procedure to produce tempered systems. Both non-tempered and tempered products were subjected to DSC, NMR, XRD, PLM, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS), in which primary crystallization was monitored or long-term storage was assessed. A toolbox was developed comprising feasibility of complementary techniques and, moreover, the toolbox was used to study the effect of lecithin and bulking materials on the CB crystallization behavior. The tempering procedure was successfully validated for every sample, as proven by the melting profile at 6 hours through DSC. The determination of the solid fat content (SFC) from the raw free induction decay signal by NMR showed to be more useful than the scripted SFC, especially for bulk fat systems. XRD showed its feasibility to study fat polymorphism for both bulk matrices and suspensions, except when sucrose is present, due to its interference in short spacings. PLM could only be used for non-tempered bulk fat systems since in other systems sample preparation cannot be standardized to measure crystallinity. FTIR and Raman spectroscopy seemed to be useful complementary techniques and capable of differentiating polymorphic forms, as is also possible using XRD. DWS showed to be comparable with DSC with an additional improved deconvolution of crystallization peaks. This study resulted in a feasibility toolbox and was used to study the effect of lecithin concentration and bulking materials, where the addition of 1% lecithin concentration in bulk fat and usage of inulin in model suspensions improves the crystallization of the CB matrix.