More Efficient Prussian Blue Nanoparticles for an Improved Caesium Decontamination from Aqueous Solutions and Biological Fluids

Abstract

Any release of radioactive cesium-137, due to unintentional accidents in nuclear plants, represents a dangerous threat for human health and the environment. Prussian blue has been widely studied and used as an antidote for humans exposed to acute internal contamination by Cs-137, due to its ability to act as a selective adsorption agent and to its negligible toxicity. In the present work, the synthesis protocol has been revisited avoiding the use of organic solvents to obtain Prussian blue nanoparticles with morphological and textural properties, which positively influence its Cs+ binding capacity compared to a commercially available Prussian blue sample. The reduction of the particle size and the increase in the specific surface area and pore volume values compared to the commercial Prussian blue reference led to a more rapid uptake of caesium in simulated enteric fluid solution (+35% after 1 h of contact). Then, after 24 h of contact, both solids were able to remove >98% of the initial Cs+ content. The Prussian blue nanoparticles showed a weak inhibition of the bacterial luminescence in the aqueous phase and no chronic detrimental toxic effects.

Simultaneous removal of caesium and strontium using different removal mechanisms of probiotic bacteria

“…The ingestion of Prussian blue (iron ferrocyanide (III)) has been proposed as a means of facilitating Cs excretion 4 , 6 , 7 . This agent has high Cs-scavenging ability and low toxicity 8 . However, it also has several disadvantages, such as causing abdominal discomfort when ingested and requiring a high cost and large amount of time for collection after excretion 9 .…”

A Prussian blue analog as a decorporation agent for the simultaneous removal of cesium and reactive oxygen species

“…14 To overcome this challenge, nanoscale PB and hollow PB with high specic surface areas have been reported to exhibit improved Cs uptake kinetics. [15][16][17][18][19][20] However, further enhancement of Cs decorporation efficiency is limited by the incomplete understanding of PB's crystal engineering. Furthermore, the ROS scavenging effects of these adsorbents have not been adequately evaluated.…”