Efficient removal of perrhenate/pertechnetate by a pyridinium-based porous polymer

The extraction of ⁹⁹TcO₄^- from radioactive effluents is extremely crucial for the purposes of nuclear disposal and environmental remediation. Herein, utilizing a facile and low-cost synthesis method, we report a pyridinium-based cationic polymer network, CPP-Cl, with impressive adsorption performance and ultrafast adsorption kinetics towards ReO₄^-. The structure featuring highly density of charged pyridinium units was synthesized, making it an effective adsorbent for capturing ReO₄^-. The material showed fast ReO₄^- adsorption kinetics reaching adsorption equilibrium within 30 s, an excellent capture capability of 1069.7 mg/g, and exceptional separation efficiency of 94.3% for removing 1000 ppm ReO₄^-. Furthermore, it possessed excellent reusability in multiple sorption/desorption trials and good uptake capacity within a widely ranging pH values. It is noteworthy that the extraction efficiency of CPP-Cl for ReO₄^- from simulated nuclear waste can be up to 94.2%. The favorable performance of the material in multiple tests revealed that CPP-Cl has tremendous potential as a high-efficiency sorbent for capturing ⁹⁹TcO₄^-/ReO₄^- in complex nuclear associated environmental systems.