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Efficient porous adsorbent for removal of cesium from contaminated water

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Abstract

An adsorbent for Cs removal from contaminated water based on phosphotungstic acid (PTA) embedded in SiO2 network was synthesized and granulated with γ-Al2O3. PTA/SiO2 had a high adsorption capacity towards Cs while the binder provided excellent mechanical characteristics of the material. It was shown that small particles of PTA/SiO2 with the sizes of 0.1–1 µm occupied space between larger particles of the binder (up to 5 µm). Chemical interaction between PTA and γ-Al2O3 during the adsorbent preparation also took place. The obtained porous material with the specific surface area of 286.9 m2/g contained 4.73% of PTA. Presence of Keggin units in the structure was confirmed by solid state NMR spectroscopy. Study of the adsorbent in Cs+ adsorption from solutions demonstrated its high adsorption capacity. The concentrations of Cs+ in the solutions after the column tests decreased by 3.3–5.2 times. The presence of Na+ and K+ as competing ions did not affect the adsorption. The material was tested in clean-up of radioactive water from the shelter of Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine). A significant decrease of 137Cs radioactivity was detected in all samples of radioactive water, especially in acidic solutions. Thus the adsorbent can be used for water treatment after incidents resulting in release of radioactive isotopes 134Cs and 137Cs.

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Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored by NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division in the framework of the Science for Peace and Security Programme (Grant SfP 984639). The authors thank S. Bokhvan for XRD study, Dr. V. Trachevsky for acquiring NMR spectra, Prof. F. Hossler for recording SEM images and K. Seaton for assistance in the manuscript preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East Tennessee State University, P. O. Box 70695, Johnson City, TN, 37614, USA

    Iuliia Little, Esther Alorkpa & Aleksey Vasiliev

  2. Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, 36a Kirova St., Chernobyl, 07270, Ukraine

    Valerii Khan

  3. Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and Petrochemistry, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, 1 Murmanskaya St., Kiev, 02094, Ukraine

    Volodymyr Povazhnyi

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  1. Iuliia Little
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  2. Esther Alorkpa
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  3. Valerii Khan
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  4. Volodymyr Povazhnyi
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  5. Aleksey Vasiliev
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Correspondence to Aleksey Vasiliev.

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Little, I., Alorkpa, E., Khan, V. et al. Efficient porous adsorbent for removal of cesium from contaminated water. J Porous Mater 26, 361–369 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-018-0608-1

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