Comparative Investigation of Fe2O3 and Fe1–xS Nanostructures for Uranium Decontamination

Nowadays, more and more researchers pay close attention to the decontamination of radioactive uranium because of its high toxicity and long half-life in the environment. Although many strategies for the development of highly effective materials have been reported, their narrow pH operating range and high salinity seriously limit their widespread application in radioactive wastewater treatment. With the purpose of mitigating these drawbacks, herein we synthesized highly uniform iron sulfide (Fe1–xS) through the heating vulcanization of iron oxide (Fe2O3) microcubes. A comparative study of UVI removal on Fe1–xS and Fe2O3 was systemically investigated under a series of environmental conditions. Batch experiments illustrated that the UVI sorption activities on Fe2O3 and Fe1–xS nanostructures were different under various pH conditions, and UVI sorption on Fe1–xS exhibited strong tolerance to the ionic strength compared to that on the Fe2O3 sample. The sorption of UVI on Fe2O3 and Fe1–xS could reach equilibrium...