Removal of Cesium and Strontium for radioactive wastewater by Prussian blue nanorods

Abstract In this work, novel Prussian blue tetragonal nanorods were prepared by template-free solvothermal methods for removal of radionuclide Cs and Sr. It was worth that Prussian blue nanorods exhibited the better adsorption performance than co-precipitation PB or Prussian blue analogue composites. Thermodynamic analysis implied that adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic which was described well with Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order equation, the maximum adsorption capacity of PB nanorod was estimated to be 194.26 mg g− 1 and 256.62 mg g− 1 for Cs+ and Sr2+. The adsorption mechanism of Cs+ and Sr2+ was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and 57Fe Mössbaure spectroscopy, the results revealed that Cs+ entered in PB crystal to generate a new phase, the most of Sr2+ was trapped in internal crystal and the other exchanged Fe2+. Furthermore, the effect of co-existing ions and pH for PB adsorption process were also investigated. The results suggest that PB nanorods were outstanding candidate for removal of Cs+ and Sr2+ from radioactive wastewater.