Biological calcium phosphate nanorods for piezocatalytical extraction of U(VI) from water

The application of nanomaterials in energy and environmental fields has recently made great progress. As a key element in the nuclear industry, the discharge of uranium (U(VI)) contained wastewater usually induces environmental issues and waste of resources. Although the catalytically generated H 2 O 2 by nanomaterials has recently shown application potential in extracting U(VI) from water, low-cost and highly efficient nanocatalysts are still urgently needed. In this work, a cheap and readily available piezocatalyst of calcium phosphate nanorods was successfully fabricated by calcining chicken bones. Under ultrasonication, H 2 O 2 was produced and used to extract U(VI) from water. It is worth noting that the yield of H 2 O 2 reached 179.7 179.7 µmol·g −1 ·h −1 , and the extraction efficiency of U(VI) in water reached 97.16% (100 ppm) within 330 min. Through the capture and quantitative analysis of the active species, it is found that the generation of H 2 O 2 depends on the combination of soluble oxygen and piezoelectrons, which thus dominates the extraction of U(VI). This simple and powerful piezocatalytic strategy greatly reduces the cost of H 2 O 2 production for U(VI) extraction in water, and is of great significance for the treatment of U(VI)-containing wastewater.