Fabricating Boron-Functionalized Covalent Organic Framework with Remarkable Potential in Handling Cationic, Anionic, and Gaseous Nuclear Wastes

Fabricating efficient adsorbent for the removal of nuclear waste is of vital importance from the viewpoint of both environmental protection and resource reclamation. Published research has yielded several adsorbents; however, these reported materials do not possess a high removal performance for different types of nuclear waste. In this work, it is shown for the first time the synthesis of a boron-functionalized covalent organic framework (COF) and its ionic borate counterpart. These boron-functionalized COFs are found to show large potential for handling various nuclear wastes, including alkaline nuclear wastewater, uranium-containing nuclear wastewater, and I 2 nuclear off-gas. The developed COF has a record NaOH uptake of 2 g g −1 , an ultrahigh uranium extraction ability of 1.77 g g −1 , and an ultrahigh I 2 capture capacity of 9.4 g g −1 . Moreover, the materials have low cost and are reusable, and thus have significant potential for handling nuclear wastes.