Soft Self-Templating Approach-Derived Covalent Triazine Framework with Bimodal Nanoporosity for Efficient Radioactive Iodine Capture for Safe Nuclear Energy

To achieve a superior removal efficiency of iodine from different phases relevant to radioactive iodine emission (I-129/I-131) for safe nuclear energy, optimized porous architectures with high surface area and large pore volume featuring appropriate pore size/shape and distribution along with a suitable chemical environment are sought. Herein, we report a soft self-templating synthesis strategy utilizing a low-cost and easily accessible 2,5dimethoxy terephthalonitrile (L-OMe) monomer to prepare a nitrogen/oxygen codoped nanoporous covalent triazine framework (MeO-CTF600) possessing an extremely high specific surface area of 2731 m(2) g(-1) and a record pore volume of 3.33 cm(3) g(-1) Interestingly, this framework shows extensive bimodal nanoporosity ranging from the micropore (1-2 nm) to narrow mesopore (2-10 nm) region, necessary to achieve superior iodine adsorption. MeO-CTF600 exhibits outstanding iodine capture performance from iodine vapor (578 wt ), including aqueous (221 wt %) and organic (849 mg g(-1)) solutions of iodine, under nuclear-fuel reprocessing conditions (348 K) compared to benchmark materials. In addition, the framework shows extremely fast adsorption kinetics and regenerability, making it a promising adsorbent tackling all sorts of radioiodine contamination toward clean and safe nuclear power sources.