Issue 28, 2024

Preparation of meso-porous aromatic frameworks for rapid ion extraction from high salt and corrosion environments

Abstract

Extraction of uranium from seawater could be capable of meeting the maintenance supply of nuclear energy fuel for thousands of years into the future. However, the low capture capacity of conventional microporous adsorbents for uranyl ions is attributed to the electrostatic repulsion of the adsorbed ions, which hinders the migration of foreign metal ions inside the pore channels. Here, we adopt silica of 10–20 nm size as a template to obtain two porous aromatic framework (PAF) adsorbents with mesoporous cavities. Meso-PAFs provide large channels for the rapid adsorption of uranyl ions with a capacity of ∼200 mg g−1 in 1 h (∼10 ppm). Notably, they exhibit an average adsorption capacity of 12.4 mg g−1 during a 20-day extraction from natural seawater, nearly tenfold higher than that of the classical amidoxime-based microporous materials (POP-AO, 1.32 mg g−1). This study provides inspiration for preparing PAFs containing mesoporous channels to provide large enrichment space and alleviate electrostatic repulsion, suggesting a reliable scheme for the future high-performance extraction of nuclear energy from seawater.

Graphical abstract: Preparation of meso-porous aromatic frameworks for rapid ion extraction from high salt and corrosion environments

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 apr 2024
Accepted
05 jun 2024
First published
18 jun 2024

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024,12, 17270-17276

Preparation of meso-porous aromatic frameworks for rapid ion extraction from high salt and corrosion environments

C. Zhang, H. Li, D. Cao, Y. Song, Y. Zheng, J. Cao, W. Chen, Y. Yuan, N. Gao and Y. Yang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024, 12, 17270 DOI: 10.1039/D4TA02244K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements