| Abstract Scope |
Nuclear energy's global demand is increasing, yet waste management remains a significant challenge, including the management of radiotoxic iodine gas. Efforts are underway to identify new iodine sorbent materials. Here, we propose MXenes, a family of 2D materials, as promising hosts for iodine getters. MXenes, composed of transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, exhibit versatile physical and chemical properties, including customizable surface areas. In our study, we synthesized an iodine sorbent MXene hybrid using silver as an example. AgNO3 was reduced to Ag nanoparticles on water-dispersed Ti3C2Tx sheets (T denotes surface terminations such as -O, -OH, -F, and -Cl). The resulting material demonstrated superior iodine loading capacity compared to conventional sorbents like silver mordenite zeolite (AgZ) and silver-functionalized silica aerogel (AgAero). This research highlights the potential of MXene hybrid systems as effective sorbents for iodine gas capture. |