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Biological calcium phosphate nanorods for piezocatalytical extraction of U(VI) from water

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Abstract

The application of nanomaterials in energy and environmental fields has recently made great progress. As a key element in the nuclear industry, the discharge of uranium (U(VI)) contained wastewater usually induces environmental issues and waste of resources. Although the catalytically generated H2O2 by nanomaterials has recently shown application potential in extracting U(VI) from water, low-cost and highly efficient nanocatalysts are still urgently needed. In this work, a cheap and readily available piezocatalyst of calcium phosphate nanorods was successfully fabricated by calcining chicken bones. Under ultrasonication, H2O2 was produced and used to extract U(VI) from water. It is worth noting that the yield of H2O2 reached 179.7 179.7 µmol·g−1·h−1, and the extraction efficiency of U(VI) in water reached 97.16% (100 ppm) within 330 min. Through the capture and quantitative analysis of the active species, it is found that the generation of H2O2 depends on the combination of soluble oxygen and piezoelectrons, which thus dominates the extraction of U(VI). This simple and powerful piezocatalytic strategy greatly reduces the cost of H2O2 production for U(VI) extraction in water, and is of great significance for the treatment of U(VI)-containing wastewater.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22376060, U2267222, and U21A20290) and Qinghai Provincial Science and Technology Project (No. 2021-ZJ-925).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental System Optimization, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Feixue Gao, Zhe Wang, Ming Fang & Xiaoli Tan

  2. Key Laboratory of Materials Physics and Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 1129, Hefei, 230031, China

    Shao Hui Xu, Mao Liu, Guang Tao Fei & Li De Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, China

    Xiaoli Tan

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  1. Feixue Gao
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  2. Zhe Wang
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  3. Ming Fang
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  4. Xiaoli Tan
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  5. Shao Hui Xu
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Correspondence to Ming Fang, Xiaoli Tan, Guang Tao Fei or Li De Zhang.

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Gao, F., Wang, Z., Fang, M. et al. Biological calcium phosphate nanorods for piezocatalytical extraction of U(VI) from water. Nano Res. 16, 12772–12780 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6159-z

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