TECH FRONT


The team reported their oxidatively modifi ed carbon (OMC) material is inexpensive and highly effi cient at absorbing radioactive metal cations, including cesium and strontium, toxic elements released into the environ- ment when the Fukushima plant melted down after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. OMC can easily trap common radioactive elements found in wa- ter fl oods from oil extraction, such as uranium, thorium and radium, said Rice chemist James Tour, who led the project with Ayrat Dimiev, a former postdoctoral researcher in his lab and now a research professor at Kazan Federal University.


The material makes good use of the porous nature of two specifi c sources of carbon, Tour said. One is an inexpensive, coke-derived powder known as C-seal F, used by the oil industry as an additive to drilling fl uids. The other is a naturally occurring, carbon-heavy mineral called shungite found mainly in Russia. The results appear this month in Carbon.


Tour and researchers at Lomonosov Moscow State University had already demonstrated a method to remove radionuclides from water using graphene oxide as a sorbent, as reported in Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange late last


C-seal F, a source used to synthesize oxidatively modifi ed carbon, is seen magnifi ed 20 times by a scanning electron microscope. The material is highly effective at removing radionuclides from water.


Image courtesy of Kazan Federal University


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