Highly Efficient Recovery of Uranium from Seawater Using an Electrochemical Approach

Uranium recovery from seawater offers a promising route for producing scalable and sustainable nuclear energy because the world’s oceans contain hundreds of times more uranium than lands. A current adsorption method presents limitations including low extraction capacity and slow extraction kinetics, making realistic implementation impractical. Here we develop an electrochemical extraction approach that demonstrates high extraction capacity and fast extraction kinetics in uranium recovery. In the electrochemical approach, chitosan-functionalized electrodes were used to offer surface specific binding to uranyl ions; voltages were then supplied to attract the ions to the electrode and induce electrodeposition of uranyl ions to form charge-neutral uranium species. The electrodeposition approach demonstrated nearly 8 times higher uranium extraction capacities and 3 times faster extraction rates than the current adsorption method in uranium-spiked seawater. Because of the excellent uranium extraction performance, the electrochemical approach allows for highly efficient recovery of uranium from seawater.