Halevi Oded, Chen Tzu-Yu, Lee Pooi See, Magdassi Shlomo, Hriljac Joseph A
CREATE NTU-HUJ Programme Enterprise Wing 138602 Singapore.
Casali Center for Applied Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem 91904 Israel
RSC Adv. 2020 Feb 5;10(10):5766-5776. doi: 10.1039/c9ra09967k. eCollection 2020 Feb 4.
The selective removal of radioactive cationic species, specifically Cs and Sr, from contaminated water is critical for nuclear waste remediation processes and environmental cleanup after accidents, such as the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011. Nanoporous silicates, such as zeolites, are most commonly used for this process but in addition to acting as selective ion exchange media must also be deployable in a correct physical form for flow columns. Herein, Digital Light Processing (DLP) three-dimensional (3D) printing was utilized to form monoliths from zeolite ion exchange powders that are known to be good for nuclear wastewater treatment. The monoliths comprise 3D porous structures that will selectively remove radionuclides in an engineered form that can be tailored to various sizes and shapes as required for any column system and can even be made with fine-grained powders unsuitable for normal gravity flow column use. 3D-printed monoliths of zeolites chabazite and 4A were made, characterized, and evaluated for their ion exchange capacities for cesium and strontium under static conditions. The 3D-printed monoliths with 50 wt% zeolite loadings exhibit Cs and Sr uptake with an equivalent ion-capacity as their pristine powders. These monoliths retain their porosity, shape and mechanical integrity in aqueous media, providing a great potential for use to not only remove radionuclides from nuclear wastewater, but more widely in other aqueous separation-based applications and processes.
从受污染水中选择性去除放射性阳离子物种，特别是铯和锶，对于核废料修复过程以及诸如2011年福岛第一核电站灾难等事故后的环境清理至关重要。纳米多孔硅酸盐，如沸石，是此过程中最常用的材料，但除了作为选择性离子交换介质外，还必须以正确的物理形式用于流动柱。在此，利用数字光处理（DLP）三维（3D）打印技术，由已知对核废水处理有益的沸石离子交换粉末制成整体材料。这些整体材料具有三维多孔结构，能够以工程形式选择性去除放射性核素，这种形式可根据任何柱系统的要求定制成各种尺寸和形状，甚至可以用不适合常规重力流柱使用的细颗粒粉末制成。制备了菱沸石和4A沸石的3D打印整体材料，对其进行了表征，并评估了它们在静态条件下对铯和锶的离子交换容量。沸石负载量为50 wt%的3D打印整体材料对铯和锶的吸收表现出与原始粉末相当的离子容量。这些整体材料在水性介质中保持其孔隙率、形状和机械完整性，不仅在从核废水中去除放射性核素方面具有巨大潜力，而且在更广泛的其他基于水相分离的应用和过程中也具有巨大潜力。
