year, but the new research suggests OMC is easier and far less expensive to process. Treating the carbon particles with oxidizing chemicals


increased their surface areas and “decorated” them with the oxygen molecules needed to adsorb the toxic metals. The particles were between 10- and 80-μm wide. While graphene oxide excelled at removing strontium, Tour said, the two types of OMC were better at extracting cesium, which he said has been the hardest element to remove from water stored at Fu- kushima. The OMC was also much easier and less expensive to synthesize and to use in a standard filtration system, he said. “We know we can use graphene oxide to trap the light radioactive elements of relevance to the Fukushima cleanup, namely cesium and strontium,” Tour said. “But in the second study, we learned we can move from graphene oxide, which remains more expensive and harder to make, to really cheap oxidized coke and related carbons to trap these elements.” While other materials used for remediation of radioactive waste need to be stored with the waste they capture, carbon


presents a distinct advantage, he said. “Carbon that has captured the elements can be burned in a nuclear incinera- tor, leaving only a very small amount of radioactive ash that’s much easier to store,” Tour said. “Just passing contaminated water through OMC filters will extract the radioactive elements and permit safe discharge to the ocean,” he said. “This could be a major advance for the cleanup effort at Fukushima.” Co-authors of the paper are Artur Khannanov, Vadim


Nekljudov, Bulat Gareev and Airat Kiiamov, all of Kazan Federal University. Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. The Rus- sian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University supported the research.


Tech Front welcomes your manufacturing research-related news releases: Please email them to Tech Front editor Patrick Waurzyniak at pwaurzyniak@sme.org.


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