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Removal of cesium and strontium for radioactive wastewater by Prussian blue nanorods

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Abstract

In this work, novel Prussian blue tetragonal nanorods were prepared by template-free solvothermal methods to remove radionuclide Cs and Sr. The as-prepared Prussian blue nanorods were identified and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic, thermogravimetric analysis, zeta potential, and surface analysis, and its sorption performance was tested by batch experiments. Our results suggest that Prussian blue nanorods exhibited better adsorption performance than co-precipitation PB or Prussian blue analogue composites. Thermodynamic analysis implied that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic which was described well with the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order equation. The maximum adsorption capacity of PB nanorod was estimated to be 194.26 mg g−1 and 256.62 mg g−1 for Cs+ and Sr2+(adsorbate concentration at 500 mg L−1, the temperature at 298 k, pH at 7.0). Moreover, the experimental results showed that the Prussian blue nanorods have high crystallinity, few crystal defects, and good stability under alkaline conditions. The adsorption mechanism of Cs+ and Sr2+ was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. The results revealed that Cs+ entered the PB crystal to generate a new phase, and most of Sr2+ was trapped in the internal crystal and the other exchanged Fe2+. Furthermore, the effect of co-existing ions and pH on PB adsorption process was also investigated. The results suggest that PB nanorods were an outstanding candidate for removing Cs+ and Sr2+ from radioactive wastewater.

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Data availability

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The work was supported by the “13th five plan” nuclear energy development and scientific research project (the fifth batch).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Chuqing Yao, Yaodong Dai, Shuquan Chang & Haiqian Zhang

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  1. Chuqing Yao
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  2. Yaodong Dai
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Contributions

Chuqing Yao: data curation, writing-original draft. Yaodong Dai: conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing. Shuquan Chang: writing—review and editing. Haiqian Zhang: writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Yaodong Dai.

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Yao, C., Dai, Y., Chang, S. et al. Removal of cesium and strontium for radioactive wastewater by Prussian blue nanorods. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 36807–36823 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24618-w

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