Abstract
More than 1000× uranium exists in the oceans than exists in terrestrial ores. With nuclear power generation expected to increase over the coming decades, access to this unconventional reserve is a matter of energy security. With origins in the mid-1950s, materials have been developed for the selective recovery of seawater uranium for more than six decades, with a renewed interest in particular since 2010. This review comprehensively surveys materials developed from 2000-2016 for recovery of seawater uranium, in particular including recent developments in inorganic materials; polymer adsorbents and related research pertaining to amidoxime; and nanostructured materials such as metal-organic frameworks, porous-organic polymers, and mesoporous carbons. Challenges of performing reliable and reproducible uranium adsorption studies are also discussed, as well as the standardization of parameters necessary to ensure valid comparisons between different adsorbents.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 13935-14013 |
| Number of pages | 79 |
| Journal | Chemical Reviews |
| Volume | 117 |
| Issue number | 23 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 13 2017 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Dr. Stephen Kung for his enthusiastic support of and dedication to the Seawater Uranium Recovery Campaign, as part of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy Fuel Resources Program. Work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).