Uranium In Situ Electrolytic Deposition with a Reusable Functional Graphene‐Foam Electrode
Name
10.1002-adma.202102633.pdf
Size
2.8 MB
Format
Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
8c898b887f7e18d6981703bb7cd37317
Author(s)
Wang, Chao
Helal, Ahmed S.
Wang, Ziqiang
Zhou, Jian
Yao, Xiahui
Shi, Zhe
Ren, Yang
Lee, Jinhyuk
Chang, Jeng‐Kuei
Fugetsu, Bunshi
Date Issued
August 2021
Journal
Advanced Materials
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Wang, Chao, Helal, Ahmed S., Wang, Ziqiang, Zhou, Jian, Yao, Xiahui et al. 2021. "Uranium In Situ Electrolytic Deposition with a Reusable Functional Graphene‐Foam Electrode." Advanced Materials, 33 (38).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Nuclear fission produces 400 GWe which represents 11% of the global electricity output. Uranium is the essential element as both fission fuel and radioactive waste. Therefore, the recovery of uranium is of great importance. Here, an in situ electrolytic deposition method to extract uranium from aqueous solution is reported. A functionalized reduced graphene oxide foam (3D-FrGOF) is used as the working electrode, which acts as both a hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst and a uranium deposition substrate. The specific electrolytic deposition capacity for U(VI) ions with the 3D-FrGOF is 4560 mg g−1 without reaching saturation, and the Coulombic efficiency can reach 54%. Moreover, reduction of the uranium concentration in spiked seawater from 3 ppm to 19.9 ppb is achieved, which is lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency uranium limits for drinking water (30 ppb). Furthermore, the collection electrode can be efficiently regenerated and recycled at least nine times without much efficiency fading, by ejecting into 2000 ppm concentrated uranium solution in a second bath with reverse voltage bias. All these findings open new opportunities in using free-standing 3D-FrGOF electrode as an advanced separation technique for water treatment.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202102633
