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Kanatzidis and Ding Invent a "Venus Flytrap" for Nuclear Waste

New material finds 'needle in a haystack,' shows promise for clean-up

More than 20 years after a nuclear reactor exploded in fire and spewed radioactive dust into the atmosphere above Chernobyl in the Ukraine, much of the land surrounding the power plant remains uninhabitable.

One of the radioactive isotopes that's causing the trouble is known as caesium-137. It's highly toxic, lasts for years and can cause cancer in people up to 30 years after the time it enters the body. And it's difficult to clean-up.

But Northwestern Chemistry researchers Mercouri Kanatzidis and Nan Ding have developed a new material to selectively soak up the caesium.
The synthetic material, made from layers of a gallium, sulfur and antimony compound, is very selective and extremely successful in removing cesium from a sodium-heavy solution. (The solution had concentrations similar to those in real liquid nuclear waste.)

It is, in fact, cesium itself that triggers a structural change in the material, causing it to snap shut its pores, or windows, and trap the cesium ions within, just like a Venus Fly Trap. The material sequesters 100 percent of the cesium ions from the solution while at the same time ignoring all the sodium ions. This has incredible potential for the environment !

To read more about this exciting science read their results which are published online by the journal Nature Chemistry. http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/index.html

 

Chemistry is at the intellectual heart of many scientific disciplines. We are strongly committed to excellence in education and research in the fundamental chemical sciences as well as exploring the connections between chemistry and the other natural sciences. To achieve this goal we have implemented bold new programs in the Chemistry of Life Processes, Materials, and Environment and Catalysis.

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6 January 2010
Chad Mirkin Named Number One Cited Chemist in the World

According to the latest update of Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators database, based on papers published and cited over the last decade, Mirkin is currently the number-one ranked author in the Chemistry category, with…

1 December 2009
Erika Crane and Becky Farmer Selected as Northwestern University Malkin Scholars

Congratulations to Erika Crane and Becky Farmer, who have been named Malkin Scholars for 2010. Both are both third year graduate students in Professor Karl Scheidt's laboratory.  The Scholar’s program is made possible through a generous gift from the Malkin Family to the…

23 November 2009
Mirkin and Thaxton Research Featured in New York Times Article

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