Oxidation Kinetics of Spent Low-Level Radioactive Resins

Characterization of polystyrene and polyacrylic based polymeric materials exposed to oxidative degradation

The characterization of oxidative degraded polystyrene-based resin (R1) and polyacrylic based resin (R2) resins in H2O2 and HClO4 degradation medium were made based on the kinetics and thermodynamic data obtained for the ion-isotopic exchange reactions using such resins. For the reactions performed by using resins degraded in H2O2 medium, the reaction rate (k) values obtained for the fresh R1 (0.315 min–1) and R2 (0.187 min–1) resins decreases to 0.300 and 0.155 min–1 respectively for the resins degraded in 20% H2O2 medium, which further decreases to 0.289 and 0.142 min–1 respectively for the resins degraded in 30% H2O2 medium. A similar trend in the results were observed for the reactions performed by using the above resins degraded in HClO4 medium. The higher values of k (min–1) and low values of various thermodynamic parameters for the ion-isotopic exchange reactions performed by using fresh and degraded polystyrene-based resin R1 resins suggests superior degradation stability as compared to polyacrylic based R2 resin.