Scientists in the US have prepared three UiO-68 network topology metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) using phosphorylurea substituted organic ligands and used them as sorbents to extract actinide elements from water and artificial sea water.
The MOFs were shown to be highly efficient at sorbing uranyl ions, with saturation sorption capacities as high as 217 mg U g-1 which is equivalent to binding one uranyl ion for every two sorbent groups.
In the future, the technology could be used to extract uranium from seawater for nuclear fuel production and for the removal of radionuclides from waste streams and drains at nuclear power plants.
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Highly porous and stable metal-organic frameworks for uranium extraction
Wenbin Lin , Michael Carboni , Carter Abney and Shubin Liu
Chem. Sci., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3SC50230A
