Graphene could clean-up nuclear sites

Latest research adds another potential use for the wonder material

Researchers have found a potential new use for the wonder material graphene: adsorbing nuclear waste from contaminated water. 

The group, at universities in the US and Russia, found that graphene oxide can quickly bind to “some of the most toxic and radioactive” radionucleotides and condense them into solids, even in acidic conditions. Capturing radioactive substances in this way could make them easier to handle.

Graphene is the thinnest, strongest and most conductive material ever known. It has a structure of carbon atoms formed in a chicken-wire-like lattice just one atom thick. The material is described in a recent report by EngineeringUK as one of the emerging technologies on which the UK is well-placed to capitalise. 

So far, scientists have flagged the potential of the material for energy storage, lightweight aircraft materials, flexible electronics, chemical sensors, and medical imaging. The latest research adds another use to the list. James Tour, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice University in Texas, a member of the research team, said it could prove useful in the clean-up of contaminated nuclear sites. 

Tour said: “Where you have got huge pools of radioactive material, like at Fukushima, you add graphene oxide and get back a solid material from what were just ions in a solution. Then you can skim it off and burn it. Graphene oxide burns very rapidly and leaves a cake of radioactive material you can then reuse.”

He added that it could also be used in hydraulic fracturing, where naturally occurring radionucleotides are brought to the surface in fracking fluids. The ability to quickly filter out contaminants onsite would save companies from having to ship the contaminated water for remediation treatment, which is expensive.