2015 AIChE Annual Meeting Proceedings

(120b) Metal-Ferrocyanide Functionalized Magnetic Adsorbents for the Removal of Radioactive Cesium in Contaminated Water

Authors

Yang, H. M. - Presenter, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Hong, S. B. - Presenter, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Park, C. W. - Presenter, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Lee, K. W. - Presenter, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Seo, B. K. - Presenter, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Moon, J. K. - Presenter, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute

The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in 2011 released a huge quantity of radioactive contaminants into the environment [1]. Among these, 137Cs is the most problematic contaminant due to its long half-life (30.2 years), high solubility in water, and high-energy gamma ray emissions. Various types of Cs adsorbents such as zeolites, calixarene, aluminum molybdophosphate, and metal ferrocyanide have been investigated. [2]. However, they cannot be easily used to remove Cs in an open environment because there is no easy way to collect the used adsorbents after applying them into the environment. Magnetic adsorbents have attracted significant attention for environmental remediation application, as they display a high surface area and provide unique magnetic separation property.
In this study, metal (cupper or iron) ferrocyanide-functionalized magnetic adsorbents were fabricated for the highly efficient removal of radioactive cesium from contaminated water. The hydrophilic polymer such as polyethyleneimine, polyvinylpyrrolidone were coated on the surface of magnetic nanocluster to stabilize the magnetic adsorbent in water and used as coating materials to immobilize the copper and ferrocyanide on the surface of magnetic nanoclusters. Furthermore, Iron ferrocyanide was directly coated onto the surface of magnetic nanoparticles without template such as hydrophilic polymer for the enhanced magnetic property and Cs removal performance. The resulting metal-ferrocyanide functionalized magnetic adsorbents having supeparamagnetic property could be easily separated from water using an external magnet, and also showed excellent removal efficiency of radioactive cesium from contaminated water due to the ion exchange capacity of the metal-ferrocyanide.

References
1. M. Manolopoulou, E. Vagena, S. Stoulos, A. Ioannidou, C. Papastefanou, J. Environ. Radioact. 102, 796 (2011).
2. P. A. Haas, Sep. Sci. Technol. 28, 2479 (1993).