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Description
Efficient adsorption of uranium (U) and iodine (I) is crucial for sustainable development of nuclear industry and human health. In order to develop high-performance adsorbents for efficient U and I adsorption from complex environment, boron nitride with great chemical and radiological stability was selected as adsorbent matrix and a series of adsorbents were developed. In this work, active hydroxyl and amino groups were introduced on the surface of hierarchically porous boron nitride (HPBN) as functionalization sites by radiation method, then boron nitride was furtherly functionalized by pyridine derivative functional groups. Prepared HPBN adsorbents exhibited ultrafast adsorption kinetic and excellent selectivity for U from radioactive sewage. For efficient capture iodine from vapor and solution, defect-engineered porous boron nitride areogels (BNA) were fabricated. The introdiction of N and B vacancies significantly increased the number of adsorption sites for I and enhanced the affinity of aerogels for I, resulting in excellent adsorption performance for I vapor as well as I in solution. In order to selectively extract U from seawater, the MOF with tunable pore structures was prepared by introducing diarylethene with photoisomerization property, then photoresponsive boron nitride aerogel (PBNA) was obtained by loading MOF in porous boron nitride aerogel. Photoresponsive boron nitride aerogels greatly increased the adsorption capacity of U by improving the dispersion of MOF, the selective adsorption of U was achieved by tuning the pore size to match that of U. This work provides new experimental idea for the modification of boron nitride adsorbents, and provides efficient adsorption materials for the rapid and selective adsorption of U and I.