Ion pair sites for efficient electrochemical extraction of uranium in real nuclear wastewater

Tao Lin, Tao Chen, Chi Jiao, Haoyu Zhang, Kai Hou, Hongxiang Jin, Yan Liu (), Wenkun Zhu () and Rong He ()
Additional contact information
Tao Lin: Southwest University of Science & Technology
Tao Chen: Southwest University of Science & Technology
Chi Jiao: Anhui Normal University
Haoyu Zhang: Southwest University of Science & Technology
Kai Hou: Southwest University of Science & Technology
Hongxiang Jin: Southwest University of Science & Technology
Yan Liu: Anhui Normal University
Wenkun Zhu: Southwest University of Science & Technology
Rong He: Southwest University of Science & Technology

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Electrochemical uranium extraction from nuclear wastewater represents an emerging strategy for recycling uranium resources. However, in nuclear fuel production which generates the majority of uranium-containing nuclear wastewater, fluoride ion (F−) co-exists with uranyl (UO22+), resulting in the complex species of UO2Fx and thus decreasing extraction efficiency. Herein, we construct Tiδ+-PO43− ion pair extraction sites in Ti(OH)PO4 for efficient electrochemical uranium extraction in wastewater from nuclear fuel production. These sites selectively bind with UO2Fx through the combined Ti-F and multiple O-U-O bonds. In the uranium extraction, the uranium species undergo a crystalline transition from U3O7 to K3UO2F5. In real nuclear wastewater, the uranium is electrochemically extracted with a high efficiency of 99.6% and finally purified as uranium oxide powder, corresponding to an extraction capacity of 6829 mg g−1 without saturation. This work paves an efficient way for electrochemical uranium recycling in real wastewater of nuclear production.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48564-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-48564-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48564-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().