Chinese researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao have developed a new material that allows extracting uranium from seawater significantly more efficiently than planned in the United States.
The team at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology has created a substance called PhosCage. It is a sponge-like molecular structure with phosphate groups that act as chemical traps for uranium.
In tests on real seawater samples, the material showed a result of up to 50,4 mg of uranium per gram of adsorbent. This is more than eight times higher than the target set by the U.S. Department of Energy — 6 mg per gram.
In laboratory conditions, PhosCage reached adsorption equilibrium in just five minutes. The scientists turned the material into millimeter-sized granules, convenient for use in the open ocean.
The granules provided extraction of 22,55 mg of uranium per gram and remained functional after seven cycles of reuse. They also demonstrate high selectivity and resistance to biofouling.
"This work opens a new approach to extracting uranium from seawater and lays the foundation for adsorbents capable of capturing more uranium and ultimately being used on a large scale," the researchers stated.
For China, the technology is particularly relevant: the country has significant uranium reserves on land, but consumes more than it mines, actively expanding nuclear energy.
The world's oceans contain about 4,5 billion tons of uranium — a thousand times more than land reserves, but the low concentration of the substance makes industrial extraction a challenging task.
Could this breakthrough change the global balance in nuclear fuel supply?
For now, scientists emphasize that the work creates a foundation for future developments, rather than immediately solving all engineering issues of large-scale application.
