An experimental and ab initio study on the abiotic reduction of uranyl by ferrous iron

It is important to understand the mechanisms controlling the removal of uranyl from solution from an environmental standpoint, particularly whether soluble Fe(II) is capable of reducing soluble U(VI) to insoluble U(IV). Experiments were performed to shed light into discrepancies of recent studies about precipitation of U-containing solids without changing oxidation states versus precipitation/reduction reactions, especially with respect to the kinetics of these reactions. To understand the atomistic mechanisms, thermodynamics, and kinetics of these redox processes, ab initio electron transfer (ET) calculations, using Marcus theory, were applied to study the reduction of U(VI)aq to U(V)aq by Fe(II)aq (the first rate-limiting ET-step). Outer-sphere (OS) and inner-sphere (IS) Fe–U complexes were modeled to represent simple species within a homogeneous environment through which ET could occur.