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Uranium extraction

Coordination chemistry in the ocean

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The amount of uranium in seawater vastly exceeds that in land-based deposits; but separating it from other more abundant metal ions requires high affinity, selectivity — and the ability to deal with an enormous volume of water. Now, two complementary approaches have made considerable contributions to overcoming these challenges.

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Figure 1: The concentration of uranium in seawater is very low.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yi Lu is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, A322 CLSL, Box 8-6,600 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA,

    Yi Lu

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  1. Yi Lu
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Correspondence to Yi Lu.

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Lu, Y. Coordination chemistry in the ocean. Nature Chem 6, 175–177 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1880

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