Designed synthesis of silver-on-Boehmite platform with surface substitution toward atom-economic iodine adsorption

The capture of radioactive iodine is crucial for nuclear safety, but conventional silver-based adsorbents suffer from low silver utilization efficiency. Instead of traditional physical loading, we report an adaptive synthesis strategy for integrated chemical construction of silver-on-boehmite platform to achieve atom-economic iodine adsorption. The designed materials incorporate a boehmite-like support capable of anchoring single silver sites (-N–Ag–N-) along with tunable surfactant-like pendant alcoholic groups. This labile site allows partial-to-complete coordinative substitution, enabling the construction of a library of nearly 20 distinct adsorbents. Such flexible design ensures monodispersion of the unsaturated silver active centers while permitting precise modulation of their maximization exposure and accessibility. Compared to traditional adsorbents, Methanol-functionalized AlOC-188-OMe achieves comparable iodine adsorption capacity but faster capture kinetics without relying on high porosity. The sequential confinement and release of I 2 within the channels were directly visualized through single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, the material demonstrates scalable synthesis (up to ∼10 g per batch) with avoidance of silver mirror reactions, excellent radiation resistance and promising dynamic adsorption performance—collectively underscoring its strong potential for practical applications. This work provides a novel paradigm for designing high-efficiency adsorbents by maximizing the utility of precious metal atoms.