Contamination of water, crops, and animal products with radioactive isotopes can occur as a result of nuclear fallout, accidents at nuclear power plants, dirty bombs, leaking storage tanks for nuclear waste or leaching from spent fuel rods. When this occurs, an effective means for removing the radionuclides from water or foodstuffs and immobilizing them is required. Inorganic ion-exchange materials are one promising avenue to achieve this since they can out perform polymeric ion-exchange materials in terms of capacity and resistance to radiation damage. XploSafe, LLC produces mineral-based ion exchangers (Xtractite and Xtractite-Z) that can adsorb heavy metals and radionuclides from water, milk, and juice. These products take advantage of newly discovered ion-exchange properties of non-porous nanoparticulate metal oxide that gives them exceptionally high exchange capacities and excellent selectivity for toxic metals. Xtractite ion exchangers have numerous potential markets beyond the obvious homeland security applications.

Xtractite: An inorganic ion-exchange material for sorption of radionucllides and heavy metals

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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