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Co-doped zinc oxide microspheres as photocatalysts for enhanced uranium extraction

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Abstract

Tailoring the band structure of photocatalysts by elemental doping to enhance redox ability and carrier separation kinetics is a promising strategy for designing high-efficiency catalysts for uranium (U(VI)) photoreduction. Herein, we report enhanced visible-light spectral absorption by tuning the energy bandgap of flower-like ZnO microspheres by doping Co. Accordingly, Co doping narrows the bandgap and increases the photogenerated carrier concentration, thereby promoting the U(VI) photocatalytic reduction. Especially, the removal ratio of U(VI) by Co-doped ZnO microspheres reaches 98.4% with a remarkable adsorption capacity of 1645 mg/g for U(VI) uptake in 400 ppm U(VI) solution. In addition, the Co-doped ZnO microspheres present desired U(VI) reduction ratio in a wide range of U(VI) concentrations, as well as excellent reusability, and resistance to ion interference during photocatalysis. This paper provides a feasible strategy for enhancing the photocatalytic reduction of uranium by introducing metal element doping on the metal oxide surface.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSFC (No. 22106126, 21976147, 21906154, and 21902130), Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2020JDJQ0060 and 2020YFG0191), the Project of State Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Energy Materials in SWUST (No. 20fksy19 and 21zd3366), and Research Fund of SWUST for PhD (No. 18zx7149 and 19zx7129).

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  1. Fucheng Zhang and Xin Yuan have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environment-Friendly Energy Materials, National Co-innovation Center for Nuclear Waste Disposal and Environmental Safety, Sichuan Co-innovation Center for New Energetic Materials, Nuclear Waste and Environmental Safety Key Laboratory of Defense, School of National Academy of Defense Technology, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China

    Fucheng Zhang, Xin Yuan, Dengjiang Fu, Li Zhou, Pengling Huang & Tao Chen

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  1. Fucheng Zhang
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  2. Xin Yuan
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Correspondence to Tao Chen.

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Zhang, F., Yuan, X., Fu, D. et al. Co-doped zinc oxide microspheres as photocatalysts for enhanced uranium extraction. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 332, 289–296 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-08772-0

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