Bismuth-embedded columnar activated carbon for gaseous radiodine capture

The bismuth-embedded columnar activated carbon (Bi-AC) composite was prepared by the method of self-reduction and investigated for trapping I 2 and CH 3 I. Our findings showed that the bismuth-based compounds mainly existed as simple substance in Bi-AC. The elemental bismuth was regularly spherical in the shape, and mostly embedded on the surface of activated carbon, seldom inside of activated carbon. The capture capacities of I 2 and CH 3 I by the Bi-AC composite was 569.0 ± 14.2 and 232.1 ± 17.7 mg/g, respectively, which was better than that of the commercial silver-based materials. I 2 was trapped to form I 5 - and Bi(IO 3 ) 3 , while CH 3 I was catalytically cleaved to form BiOI and I 5 - . The Bi-AC composite is expected be used as adsorbents of 129 I to replace silver-based materials due to its high performance and low cost.