Effect of Different Surfactant on Leaching of Uranium in Sandstone Type Ores with Low Permeability

Abstract

This paper researched the effect of six surfactant including aodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate(SDBS)、cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide(CTAB)、po1yoxyethylene octylphenol ether (OP-10)、Triton X-100(TX-100)、FSO and their mixture on surface tension of the leaching solution and on leaching rate of uranium in sandstone uranium ores. Results showed that all kinds of surfactant could observably reduce the surface tension of the leaching solution at low concentration. The surface tension of leaching solution containing 1g/L FSO and 0.01g/L mixture surfactant(mOP-10 /mFSO; 7:3) was 20.7mN/m and 17.9 mN/m respectively. Results of agitation leach experiments showed that FSO and the system of OP-10 and FSO could improve the leaching rate, and the leaching rate of uranium could be increased by 14.16% and 16.08% to 92.54% and 94.09% respectively. These results indicated that the way of reducing the surface tension of the leaching solution could improve the leaching rate of uranium.