To achieve a superior removal efficiency
of iodine from different
phases relevant to radioactive iodine emission (129I/131I) for safe nuclear energy, optimized porous architectures
with high surface area and large pore volume featuring appropriate
pore size/shape and distribution along with a suitable chemical environment
are sought. Herein, we report a soft self-templating synthesis strategy
utilizing a low-cost and easily accessible 2,5-dimethoxy terephthalonitrile
(L
OMe
) monomer to prepare a nitrogen/oxygen
codoped nanoporous covalent triazine framework (
MeO
-CTF600) possessing an extremely high specific
surface area of 2731 m2 g–1 and a record
pore volume of 3.33 cm3 g–1. Interestingly,
this framework shows extensive bimodal nanoporosity ranging from the
micropore (1–2 nm) to narrow mesopore (2–10 nm) region,
necessary to achieve superior iodine adsorption.
MeO
-CTF600 exhibits outstanding iodine capture
performance from iodine vapor (578 wt %), including aqueous (221 wt
%) and organic (849 mg g–1) solutions of iodine,
under nuclear-fuel reprocessing conditions (348 K) compared to benchmark
materials. In addition, the framework shows extremely fast adsorption
kinetics and regenerability, making it a promising adsorbent tackling
all sorts of radioiodine contamination toward clean and safe nuclear
power sources.