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Adsorption and photocatalytic reduction activity of uranium(VI) on zinc oxide/rectorite composite enhanced with methanol as sacrificial organics

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Abstract

In this work, zinc oxide/rectorite composites were synthesized by a sol–gel method. The methanol as sacrificial organics could be enhance the adsorption capability and photocatalytic reduction activity of U(VI) onto the zinc oxide/rectorite composites. In addition, the composite still showed the high photoreduction activity after four reaction cycles under visible light irradiation. On the basis of the experimental results and photoluminescence, the enhanced photoreduction activity could be attributed to charge-transfer-complex and the coupling effect of ZnO and rectorite in the composite.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21407022, 51564001, 51408112, 41562011), the Science Funds of the Education Office of Jiangxi, China (KJLD13054) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M582748XE). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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Correspondence to Yadan Guo.

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Guo, Y., Li, L., Li, Y. et al. Adsorption and photocatalytic reduction activity of uranium(VI) on zinc oxide/rectorite composite enhanced with methanol as sacrificial organics. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 310, 883–890 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-016-4820-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-016-4820-7

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