Molecular insights into the binding mechanism of strontium and cesium on phyllosilicates with different expandability

The environmental fate of strontium (Sr) and cesium (Cs), as the critical radioactive fission products, have raised significant concerns regarding radioactive waste disposal and environmental protection. The current study investigated the distinction in the binding configurations of Sr²⁺ and Cs⁺ on various 2:1 phyllosilicate (illite, vermiculite, and montmorillonite) by combining batch adsorption, sequential extraction, and spectroscopic analyses. The results show that strontium adsorption is strongly influenced by pH as well as ionic strength, while there is no significant variability in strontium adsorption by different types of clay minerals. EXAFS analysis confirms the outer complexation of strontium on the planar sites of the clay minerals, i.e., Sr²⁺ is surrounded by ~8.0 O atoms, R_Sr-O ≈ 2.6 Å, and that process is mainly realized by ion exchange. In contrast, Cs⁺ adsorption was markedly influenced by the variety of clay minerals but less by pH and ionic strength, the presence of humic acid (HA) inhibited Cs⁺ adsorption. The inner-sphere complexation formed mainly at the frayed edge sites on illite, and interlayer sites on vermiculite and montmorillonite, was the dominant mechanism for Cs⁺ adsorption. In addition, the collapse of the interlayer space of vermiculite induced by Cs⁺ adsorption on the interlayer sites was responsible for the more stable and irreversible immobilization. The findings in present work highlighted the significance of prevailed mineral in governing environmental migration risk of radionuclides, the revealed adsorption mechanism and binding configuration of Sr²⁺ and Cs⁺ on typical phyllosilicates would be referable in constructing a reliable migration model of Sr²⁺ and Cs⁺ in natural media.