Nanocomposite Materials for Radionuclide Sequestration from Groundwater Environments

The half-lives of radionuclidesRadionuclides range from fractions of a second to billions of years. Since no practical method of altering radioactive decay exists, and since exposure to either the energy emitted from radioactive decay or chemical properties of radionuclidesRadionuclides poses dire health risks, radioactive materials must be segregated and controlled. The capture, treatment, and disposition of radioactive materials remain an extraordinary challenge. In here, we focus our attention on the synthesis and characterization of a unique class of nanocompositeNanocomposite materials that have potential for removal of radionuclideRadionuclides contamination. Specifically, we report a simple approach to decorate the surface of iron-based (Fe/FexOy) material with various nano-catalysts. Specifically, copper (Cu), tin (Sn), and silver (Ag) nanoparticlesNanoparticles were prepared through two different reduction approaches, namely, citrate and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) methods, on the iron-based material surface. All samples were characterized by a variety of analytical tools, which included scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDS), and EDS mapping to elucidate materials’ morphology as well as nano-catalysts’ loading and location on the iron-based structures.