Nature.com Nov 11, 2023
Toxic fission products such as cesium 137Cs and iodine 129I are of great concern because of their long half-lives and high solubility in water. The simultaneous removal of Cs and I using a single adsorbent is an area of increasing interest. In this study MXenesilver nanowire AgNW composite was synthesized through physical mixing and employed for simultaneous removal of iodide I8722 and cesium Cs ions from contaminated water. The MXeneAgNW composite demonstrated excellent adsorption capacities of 84.70 and 26.22ampnbspmgg for I8722 and Cs respectively. The experimental data supported the hypothesis of multilayer adsorption of Cs owing to the inter-lamellar structures and the presence of heterogeneous adsorption sites in MXene. The interaction between I8722 and the AgNW involved chemisorption followed by monolayer adsorption. MXeneAgNW composite material exhibited promising results in the presence of competitive ions under extreme pH conditions. Thus synthesized composite materials holds promising potential as an adsorbent for the remediation of radioactive liquid waste.