Extraction of radioactive cesium using innovative functionalized porous materials

Abstract

A new approach to an efficient and selective extraction of Cs + ions from water, sea water enriched with Cs + and a radioactive solution simulating the effluents of the Fukushima reactors ( 137 Cs, 29 kBq L 21 ) was developed by using porous silica-or glass-based nanocomposites containing Prussian blue type nanoparticles, Co 2+ /[Fe(CN) 6 ] 32 , with sizes below 10 nm. A particular emphasis is given on the kinetics of cesium sorption fitted by using the classical reaction order model as well as a diffusion model in order to better understand the sorption mechanism. Compared to the amount of Co 2+ / [Fe(CN) 6 ] 32 nanoparticles, the sorption capacities of studied nanocomposites are more than three times higher than the ones observed for the respective bulk materials. These nanocomposites present a high selectivity to Cs + and extract it in trace amounts.

Ion-exchange properties of ternary CaO–MgO–Al2O3 spinels in pH-controlled aqueous radioactive waste solutions

“…However, the Cs + and Sr 2+ in those low-acidic solutions were presented at only trace level. Others, encouraging results with ammonium molybdophosphate/transition metal hexacyanoferrate immobilized on diverse supports (mesoporous silica and polymer resins), presented as bulk materials or nanocomposites were reported for the decontamination of cesium ions recently [10][11][12][13][14][15]; however, they have questionable thermal stability at the elevated temperatures generated by decay energy. Ternary acidic salts of multivalent metal were used to achieve the analytical separations of heavy-metal ions [16][17][18], few of which were focused on the removal of Cs + and Sr 2+ .…”

Prussian blue (PB) granules for cesium (Cs) removal from drinking water

“…Pharmaceutical-grade PB has been administered to assist in the removal of Cs from humans after the Chernobyl disaster. When binding to fixed carriers, nano-sized PB crystals have large specific surface areas for Cs decontamination from water [17,18]. For example, Kitajima et al [19] applied an ionexchange technique (Na + to K + ) to immobilize PB nanoparticles on cotton fabric.…”

“…Although efficient adsorbents have been synthesized, production costs are high [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Prussian blue (PB), a dark-blue pigment, has the formula Fe 7 (CN) 18 and a crystal cage size similar to the hydration radius of Cs + [2,16]. Pharmaceutical-grade PB has been administered to assist in the removal of Cs from humans after the Chernobyl disaster.…”

Multicolor electrochromic thin films and devices based on the Prussian blue family nanoparticles

“…Iron has a relatively high abundance (5.63 Â 10 4 mg/kg in earth's crust) and is thus easier to access with a much lower cost as compared to tungsten. And this mixed-valence compound has been familiar with versatile niches in not only electrochromics but also secondary batteries [17,18], sensors [19,20], electrocatalysis [21,22], and radioelement removal [23,24]. Moreover, replacing the coordinate iron in the PB framework with other transition metals results in a distinct Prussian blue analogue (PBA) showing a different color [25].…”