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Posted by United Press International on March 2, 2010, 1:24 pm
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ARGONNE, Ill., March 2 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've
created a material that mimics a Venus Flytrap, but instead of
catching insects, it traps radioactive nuclear waste.
Mercouri Kanatzidis, a scientist at the Argonne National
Laboratory in Illinois, and Nan Ding, a chemist at Northwestern
University, said their sulfide framework can trap radioactive cesium
ions, giving it the potential of helping speed clean-up of nuclear
waste.
The researchers said nuclear waste contains both non-toxic
sodium ions and highly radioactive cesium isotopes and most
materials don't distinguish between the two.
Kanatzidis said the newly developed material is composed of
metal sulfides with a negative charge. Its pores, therefore, attract
positively charged ions, making it a good candidate for ion
exchange. When immersed in a solution with other positive ions, the
ions tucked inside the pores switch places with the ions outside.
Sodium ions do that freely, Kanatzidis said. But when the
researchers filled the material with cesium ions, they found those
ions refused to move from the material.
"Imagine the framework like a Venus flytrap," Kanatzidis
said. "When the plant jaws are open, you can drop a pebble in and
the plant won't close -- it knows it isn't food. When a fly enters,
however, the plant's jaws snap shut.
"As far as we know, this Venus-flytrap process is unique,"
Kanatzidis added. "It also works over a large range of acidities.
The research appears in the journal Nature Chemistry.
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