Bismuth-based materials for iodine capture and storage: A review

As energy demand increases, nuclear power plants will continue to be reliable sources of energy though they release toxic byproducts to the environment. Separation of such contaminants before waste disposal to the environmental waters or release to the atmosphere, and then storage of the isolated substances benefits human beings and the environment. Fabricating eco-friendly, chemically durable, and efficient adsorbents have become core task to minimize iodine contamination problems. One group of potential green materials to uptake these contaminants are bismuth-based materials. The intent of this review is to provide updated achievements on the bismuth-based materials applied for aqueous and vapor iodine uptake and storage. Factors that affect iodine capture, such as adsorption capacity, pH of the solution, efficiency, temperature, contact time, and others are summarized and assessed. Iodine uptake mechanisms are discussed in-depth. The new trend for developing more efficient bismuth-based adsorbents for iodine capture has been summarized.