β-Ketoenamine-linked covalent organic framework for efficient iodine capture

Exploring the materials that effectively capture radioactive iodine is crucial in managing nuclear waste produced from nuclear power plants. In this study, a β-ketoenamine-linked covalent organic framework (bCOF) is reported as an effective adsorbent to capture iodine from both vapor and solution. The bCOF's high porosity and heteroatom-rich skeleton offer notable iodine vapor uptake capacity of up to 2.51 g g^-1 at 75 °C under ambient pressure. Furthermore, after five consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles, the bCOF demonstrates high reusability performance with significant iodine vapor capacity retention. The adsorption mechanism was also investigated using various ex situ structural characterization techniques, and these mechanistic studies revealed the existence of a strong chemical interaction between the bCOF and iodine. The bCOF also showed good iodine uptake performance of up to 512 mg g^-1 in cyclohexane with high removal efficiencies. The bCOF's performance in adsorbing iodine from both vapor and solution makes it a promising material to be used as an effective adsorbent in capturing radioactive iodine emissions from nuclear power plants.