After the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, the demand for efficient removal technology of radioactive 137Cs drastically increased. Prussian blue (PB) nanoparticles have shown excellent adsorption ability towards to Cs. We successfully fabricated the PB nanoparticles incorporated PAN nanofiber (PB/PAN). In order to evaluate the dispersion of PB nanoparticles in PAN nanofibers and the effect of PB on the radioactive Cs removal, their morphology, physicochemical properties, and adsorption performances were investigated. Morphological analysis revealed the porous structure of nanofibers with diameters of several hundred nanometers. XRD and FTIR confirm that PB nanoparticles are successfully incorporated into PAN matrix without changing of their intrinsic crystallinity and structure. Surface area analysis showed the mesoporous structure of PB/PAN and incorporation of PB nanoparticles led to increases in BET surface area and pore volume. Water contact angle results reveal that the addition of PB nanoparticles enhanced wettability of PAN nanofibers. PB/PAN exhibited an excellent wettability with water. For the 137Cs removal, PB/PAN showed high removal efficiency (87 ± 3%) within 10 seconds for 10 mL of 137Cs solution (1000 Bq L-1 ) by simple filtering. The 137Cs removal by PB/PAN also showed high removal efficiency (69.8 ± 2.2 %, for 1 hr) even in a real seawater medium. Finally, PB/PAN nanofibers are useful in the practical application of Cs removal from radioactive wastewater because PB/PAN can rapidly absorb the radioactive Cs from wastewater and directly use without further preparation or purification.

Prussian blue incorporated polyacrylonitrile nanofibers for rapid removal of radioactive 137Cs

2019 Fall National Meeting

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