The extraction of uranium from seawater is challenging though it offers tremendous potential for the sustainable production of nuclear fuel for the energy sector.Herein,we report a new strategy for efficient extractio...The extraction of uranium from seawater is challenging though it offers tremendous potential for the sustainable production of nuclear fuel for the energy sector.Herein,we report a new strategy for efficient extraction of uranium from seawater via converging the cooperative functions of adsorption-photocatalysis into the nanospace of covalent organic frameworks(COFs).Functionalization of the organic linkers in the multicomponent COFs allowed exploration of the relationship between material composition and adsorption-photocatalytic activity for uranium extraction.The presence of amidoxime groups in the COFs offered selective binding sites for uranyl,whilst triazine units and bipyridine-Pd groups acted cooperatively to photocatalytically reduce adsorbed U(Ⅵ)to a U(Ⅳ)solid product(UO2)for facile collection.One of our developed COFs,4-Pd-AO,displayed exceptional performance in sequestering and reducing uranyl from natural seawater,with a high extraction capacity of 4.62 mg U/g per day(average data)under visible light irradiation.Mechanistic studies revealed that 4-Pd-AO not only reduced adsorbed uranyl(Ⅵ)to U(Ⅳ)O_(2),but also generated ^(1)O_(2) and superoxide radicals under visible light excitation,thus affording excellent antibacterial and antialgal activities(i.e.,antibiofouling properties)for sustained efficient uranium extraction performance.This proof-ofconcept study establishes multicomponent COFs as promising candidates for efficient uranium extraction from seawater.展开更多
基金funding support from the National Science Foundation of China(grant nos.U2167218 and 22006036)National Key Research and Development Program of China(grant nos.2017YFA0207002 and 2018YFC1900105)+4 种基金the Science Challenge Project(grant no.TZ2016004)the Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Programthe Students Innovation Training Program(grant no.202106014)the Robert A.Welch Foundation(B-0027)(S.M.)support from the 14W station in Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility(SSRF).
文摘The extraction of uranium from seawater is challenging though it offers tremendous potential for the sustainable production of nuclear fuel for the energy sector.Herein,we report a new strategy for efficient extraction of uranium from seawater via converging the cooperative functions of adsorption-photocatalysis into the nanospace of covalent organic frameworks(COFs).Functionalization of the organic linkers in the multicomponent COFs allowed exploration of the relationship between material composition and adsorption-photocatalytic activity for uranium extraction.The presence of amidoxime groups in the COFs offered selective binding sites for uranyl,whilst triazine units and bipyridine-Pd groups acted cooperatively to photocatalytically reduce adsorbed U(Ⅵ)to a U(Ⅳ)solid product(UO2)for facile collection.One of our developed COFs,4-Pd-AO,displayed exceptional performance in sequestering and reducing uranyl from natural seawater,with a high extraction capacity of 4.62 mg U/g per day(average data)under visible light irradiation.Mechanistic studies revealed that 4-Pd-AO not only reduced adsorbed uranyl(Ⅵ)to U(Ⅳ)O_(2),but also generated ^(1)O_(2) and superoxide radicals under visible light excitation,thus affording excellent antibacterial and antialgal activities(i.e.,antibiofouling properties)for sustained efficient uranium extraction performance.This proof-ofconcept study establishes multicomponent COFs as promising candidates for efficient uranium extraction from seawater.
