Recently, a collaborative research team led by Professor Qiu Jieshan at Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Professor Wang Gang at Dongguan University of Technology developed an electrocatalytic material with a dual conversion pathway. This material can efficiently extract and recover the extremely valuable metal uranium from uranium-containing wastewater, extracting more than three times its own weight in a single extraction.
Within 72 hours, the material can remove 98.4% of the uranium from uranium-containing wastewater, reducing the uranium concentration to 0.022 mg L⁻¹, meeting international drinking water standards (0.03 mg L⁻¹). Modular experiments confirmed that 15.75 mg of uranium could be extracted from groundwater within 17 hours.
Nuclear energy is a crucial energy source supporting economic and social development. Uranium is a key material for nuclear power generation. However, easily mined uranium deposits on Earth are becoming increasingly scarce, while wastewater containing trace amounts of uranium is abundant, wasting resources and polluting the environment. The electrocatalytic material developed by this team is a novel type of nanomaterial capable of efficiently, rapidly, and cleanly extracting uranium from water.
(Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65932-4)
01 A Bifunctional Electrocatalytic Material Capable of "Walking on Two Legs"
This breakthrough lies in designing a dual function for this electrocatalytic material, giving it the ability to "walk on two legs."
This special electrocatalytic material they created is ingeniously coupled from two materials: the inorganic tungsten oxide and the organic polypyrrole.
The tungsten oxide grows into a sea urchin shape, while the polypyrrole, like a layer of conductive jelly, is evenly coated on the surface of the sea urchin.
The first capability is an internal electric field "magnet."
After the tungsten oxide and polypyrrole are combined, a tiny internal electric field is generated between them. This electric field acts like a directional electron slide, allowing electrons to flow more smoothly from polypyrrole to tungsten oxide.
As a result, the surface of tungsten oxide becomes more adept at capturing and taming positively charged uranium ions, rapidly electroreducing them back to solid uranium. Simply put, it makes the electrocatalyst more attractive to uranium, holding it more firmly, and the reduction rate faster.
The second capability is self-production of a "precipitant."
Polypyrrole itself has a unique ability: it can fully utilize dissolved oxygen in water, stably producing hydrogen peroxide-the same hydrogen peroxide used for disinfection-based on a two-electron oxygen reduction reaction.
This is crucial because hydrogen peroxide, upon encountering uranium ions in water, immediately undergoes a "click chemistry" reaction, generating a yellow solid precipitate called uranium peroxide.
This reaction is a well-established industrial method for uranium purification. In this way, the electrode not only attracts uranium ions but also instantly precipitates them as a solid yellow precipitate on itself, completely separating them from the water.
These two pathways-electric field-driven electrochemical reduction and hydrogen peroxide-driven chemical precipitation-have a synergistic effect, like equipping the electrocatalyst with a dual engine, greatly accelerating the speed and total amount of uranium extracted from water.
(Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65932-4)
02 High Extraction, Fast Extraction, Clear Recognition, Long-Lasting Use
Experiments have proven the impressive performance of this dual-engine electrocatalyst:
Firstly, it extracts a large amount. During experimental testing, its highest extraction capacity reached 3,104 milligrams of uranium per gram of material, nearly twice that of current leading technologies.
Secondly, it extracts quickly. In oxygenated water, it can remove over 93% of the uranium within 6 hours, nearly twice as efficient as in a single-engine, oxygen-free environment.
Secondly, it exhibits excellent selectivity; even with the presence of common metal ions like sodium, calcium, and magnesium in the water, the electrode material can still precisely and preferentially capture uranium.
Finally, it boasts longevity. A gentle wash with dilute acid dissolves and recovers the small yellow stones adhering to the electrocatalyst material. The electrode material itself is robust and stable, allowing for at least 20 reuses with virtually no performance degradation.
This means that this functional nano-electrocatalyst material has broad application prospects. In uranium mining, processing, and tailings treatment, this technology can efficiently recover uranium from wastewater, reducing radioactive waste and recycling valuable resources.
How to economically and efficiently extract uranium from massive amounts of seawater has been a long-standing challenge. The efficient, low-energy technology developed by Professor Qiu Jieshan and Professor Wang Gang's team provides a new approach for future development of marine uranium resources.
Furthermore, its application in treating uranium-contaminated groundwater can ensure water security and ecological health.
(Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65932-4)
Regarding future plans, Professor Qiu Jieshan told DeepTech, "Our team will collaborate closely with top-tier research institutions and scholars both domestically and internationally, utilizing advanced in-situ characterization techniques to deeply reveal the intrinsic structure-activity relationship of these functional electrocatalytic materials and the transport and evolution mechanisms of uranium species, further optimizing material design and improving uranium extraction performance."
In the interview, he also envisioned the broad application prospects of functional materials, especially functional carbon materials, in gas separation, energy storage, and catalysis, particularly in applications urgently needed by the nation, such as high-performance energy storage materials and devices, seawater desalination, and water electrolysis for hydrogen production coupled with the intelligent manufacturing of fine chemicals. In these fields, functional carbon materials, due to their unique structure and properties, will play a crucial role.