MXene/AgNW composite material for selective and efficient removal of radioactive cesium and iodine from water

Toxic fission products, such as cesium (¹³⁷Cs) and iodine (¹²⁹I) are of great concern because of their long half-lives and high solubility in water. The simultaneous removal of Cs and I using a single adsorbent is an area of increasing interest. In this study, MXene/silver nanowire (AgNW) composite was synthesized through physical mixing and employed for simultaneous removal of iodide (I^-) and cesium (Cs⁺) ions from contaminated water. The MXene/AgNW composite demonstrated excellent adsorption capacities of 84.70 and 26.22 mg/g for I^- and Cs⁺, respectively. The experimental data supported the hypothesis of multilayer adsorption of Cs⁺ owing to the inter-lamellar structures and the presence of heterogeneous adsorption sites in MXene. The interaction between I^- and the AgNW involved chemisorption followed by monolayer adsorption. MXene/AgNW composite material exhibited promising results in the presence of competitive ions under extreme pH conditions. Thus, synthesized composite materials holds promising potential as an adsorbent for the remediation of radioactive liquid waste.