Prussian blue nanocubes decorated on nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon network for efficient sorption of radioactive cesium

Juexuan Li; Yongxi Zan; Zhengping Zhang; Meiling Dou; Feng Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121568

Prussian blue nanocubes decorated on nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon network for efficient sorption of radioactive cesium

J Hazard Mater. 2020 Mar 5:385:121568. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121568. Epub 2019 Nov 21.

Authors

Juexuan Li¹, Yongxi Zan¹, Zhengping Zhang¹, Meiling Dou², Feng Wang³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Laboratory of Electrochemical Process and Technology for materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Laboratory of Electrochemical Process and Technology for materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China. Electronic address: douml@mail.buct.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Laboratory of Electrochemical Process and Technology for materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China. Electronic address: wangf@mail.buct.edu.cn.

PMID: 31761643
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121568

Abstract

Eliminating the radioactive ¹³⁷Cs from nuclear waste is critical to the human health and environment. Prussian blue (PB)-based materials are considered as promising adsorbents for the removal of cesium. Herein, we demonstrate a facile strategy to achieve controllable synthesis of PB nanocrystals decorated on nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon (NHPC) derived from cattle bone as adsorbent to remove cesium. The PB nanocrystals with a nanocube morphology are well distributed on NHPC, which is beneficial to increase the reachable surface area during adsorption. The resulting adsorbent exhibits a remarkable adsorption performance with a capacity of 125.31 mg g^-1, a superior recyclability with 87 % of initial capacity retained after 5 cycles, and an outstanding adsorption selectivity for cesium. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy combined with ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy results reveal that cesium ions are inserted into the crystal channels of PB to generate a new phase (CsFe₂(CN)₆·3H₂O) after adsorption. Moreover, the adsorption process is spontaneous and endothermic which can be described by the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. This strategy for synthesis of PB/carbon adsorbents offers efficient candidate for removal of ¹³⁷Cs from wastewater.

Keywords: Adsorbent; Cattle bone; Nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon; Prussian blue nanocubes; Radioactive cesium.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't