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Updated: Sep 5, 2025
An Efficient Method for Selective Desalination of Radioactive Iodine Anions by Using Gold Nanoparticles-Embedded Membrane Filter
Published on: July 13, 2018
Multi-scale computer-aided design and photo-controlled macromolecular synthesis boosting uranium harvesting from
Zeyu Liu1, Youshi Lan2, Jianfeng Jia1
1Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
By integrating multi-scale computational simulation with photo-regulated macromolecular synthesis, this study presents a new paradigm for smart design while customizing polymeric adsorbents for uranium harvesting from seawater. A dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) approach, combined with a molecular dynamics (MD) study, is performed to simulate the conformational dynamics and adsorption process of a model uranium grabber, i.e., PAOm-b-PPEGMAn, suggesting that the maximum adsorption capacity with atomic economy can be achieved with a preferred block ratio of 0.18. The designed polymers are synthesized using the PET-RAFT polymerization in a microfluidic platform, exhibiting a record high adsorption capacity of uranium (11.4 ± 1.2 mg/g) in real seawater within 28 days. This study offers an integrated perspective to quantitatively assess adsorption phenomena of polymers, bridging metal-ligand interactions at the molecular level with their spatial conformations at the mesoscopic level. The established protocol is generally adaptable for target-oriented development of more advanced polymers for broadened applications.
