Removing radioactive waste from water, especially in cases of nuclear disasters such as that in Fukushima, has been a cause of concern for long now, due to the multifold harmful effects that it has. But the wonder molecule, Graphene, again promises to be the savior, as researched by scientists from Houston's Rice University and Lomonosov Moscow State University, which causes radionuclides (that is the ions) to clump , which can be filtered off, making the water clean.
Presently , betonite and activated carbon are used to clean contaminated water, but graphene flakes are much more effective, due to their larger surface area. In a test, the one atom thick flakes were added to uranium and plutonium containing water, along with calcium and sodium (which actually hamper the cleaning process). Graphene was still able to condense out the toxins, irrespective of pH of water.
(left vial containing graphene flakes in solution, right vial with
clumping having occurred)
“Where you have huge pools of radioactive material, like at Fukushima, you add graphene oxide and get back a solid material from what were just ions in a solution,” said Rice chemist James Tour, heading the reasearch, along with moscow's Stepan Kalmikov. “Then you can skim it off and burn it. Graphene oxide burns very rapidly and leaves a cake of radioactive material you can then reuse.”"Graphene oxide’s large surface area defines its capacity to adsorb toxins, Kalmykov said. “So the high retention properties are not surprising to us,” he said. “What is astonishing is the very fast kinetics of sorption, which is key."
This research could surely prove to be a boon for people of areas living near nuclear plants, and disaster struck areas as well, with graphene providing a cheap, biodegradable solution to the polluted water problem
Source: Rice University via Gizmag
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