Insights into the ion-exchange properties of Zn(ii)-incorporated MOR zeolites for the capture of multivalent cations

Revival of Zeolite-Templated Nanocarbon Materials: Recent Advances in Energy Storage and Conversion

Nanocarbon materials represent one of the hottest topics in physics, chemistry, and materials science. Preparation of nanocarbon materials by zeolite templates has been developing for more than 20 years. In recent years, novel structures and properties of zeolite-templated nanocarbons have been evolving and new applications are emerging in the realm of energy storage and conversion. Here, recent progress of zeolite-templated nanocarbons in advanced synthetic techniques, emerging properties, and novel applications is summarized: i) thanks to the diversity of zeolites, the structures of the corresponding nanocarbons are multitudinous; ii) by various synthetic techniques, novel properties of zeolite-templated nanocarbons can be achieved, such as hierarchical porosity, heteroatom doping, and nanoparticle loading capacity; iii) the applications of zeolite-templated nanocarbons are also evolving from traditional gas/vapor adsorption to advanced energy storage techniques including Li-ion batteries, Li-S batteries, fuel cells, metal-O2 batteries, etc. Finally, a perspective is provided to forecast the future development of zeolite-templated nanocarbon materials.

Superior Ion-exchange Property of Amorphous Aluminosilicates Prepared by a Co-precipitation Method

The development of inexpensive inorganic ion-exchangers for the purification of environmental pollutants is a social demand. Amorphous aluminosilicates with a relatively high homogeneous Al environment are prepared by a feasible co-precipitation method, i. e., mixing an acidic aluminum sulfate solution and basic sodium silicate solution, which exhibit excellent ion-exchange selectivity for Cs⁺ and Sr²⁺ . The K_d value for Sr²⁺ was comparable with that of zeolite 4A. The local structures and ion-exchange behavior of the amorphous aluminosilicates are systematically investigated. The ion-exchange property of the amorphous aluminosilicates can be tuned by changing the interaction between the exchangeable cation and the amorphous aluminosilicates. Also, the amorphous aluminosilicates can adsorb bulky cations that zeolites hardly adsorb due to the limitation of the miropore size of zeolites.

The Uptake of Hazardous Metal Ions into a High-Nuclearity Cluster-Based Compound with Structural Transformation and Proton Conduction

The discovery of novel high-nuclearity oxo-clusters considerably promotes the development of cluster science. We report a high-nuclearity oxo-cluster-based compound with acid/alkali-resistance and radiation stabilities, namely, (H₃O)₇[Cd₇Sb₂₄O₂₄(l-tta)₉(l-Htta)₃(H₂O)₆]·29H₂O (FJSM-CA; l-H₄tta = l-tartaric acid), which features a two-dimensionally anionic layer based on the largest Sb-oxo-clusters with 28-metal-ion-core [Cd₄Sb₂₄O₂₄]. It is challenging to efficiently capture Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺ (analogue of ²²⁶Ra), and [UO₂]²⁺ ions from aqueous solutions due to their high water solubility and environmental mobility, while it is unprecedented that a novel Sb-oxo-cluster-based framework material FJSM-CA can efficiently remove these hazardous ions accompanied with intriguing structural transformations. Especially, it shows fast ion-exchange abilities for Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺, and [UO₂]²⁺ (reaches equilibrium within 2, 10, and 20 min, respectively) and high exchange capacity (121.91 mg/g), removal rate R (96%), and distribution coefficient K_d^U (2.46 × 10⁴ mL/g) for uranium. Moreover, the underlying mechanism is clearly revealed, which is attributed to strong electrostatic interactions between exchanged cations and highly negative-charged frameworks and the strong affinity of (COO)^- groups for these cations. Proton conduction of the pristine and Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺, [UO₂]²⁺-loaded products was investigated. This work highlights the design of new oxo-cluster-based materials for radionuclide remediation and proton conduction performance.