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Effectively addressing global warming requires a rapid transformation of the ways in which energy is consumed, and nuclear power produces very low lifecycle carbon emissions. Efficient uranium extraction from unconventional uranium ore sources, such as the ocean, can provide a stable and long-term supply of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants. Herein, we report an interconnected open-pore architecture poly(amidoxime) (PAO) fiber with PAO nanoparticles and a nano-channel structure (AO-OpNpNc) using a top-down design. A high uranium adsorption capacity of 17.57 mg-U per g-adsorbent in natural seawater and ultra-long service life of at least 30 cycles were obtained, which are the highest values among currently available adsorbents to our knowledge. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) fits and density functional theory (DFT) computational studies suggest that PAO-bound uranyl is a cooperative chelating model. More importantly, uranium production costs could be reduced to $80.70–86.25 per kg of uranium with this fiber, which is similar to the uranium spot price of $86.68 per kg of uranium and lower than the costs of all currently available adsorbents. The exceptional durability of the AO-OpNpNc fibers suggests the possibility of economically producing nuclear fuel from the ocean.

BiSbTe has been realized as an ideal p-type thermoelectric material near room temperature; however, its commercial applications are largely restricted by its n-type counterpart that exhibits relatively inferior thermoelectric performance. In this work, n-type BiTeSe based composites Bi2Te2.7Se0.3–f InSb (0 ≤ f ≤ 2.5 vol%) are prepared by a ball milling and spark plasma sintering method. A record-high ZT value of ∼1.22 is achieved at 323 K for Bi2Te2.7Se0.3–1.5 vol% InSb composites. This significant enhancement in thermoelectric performance is attributed to the incorporation of nanostructured InSb into the Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 matrix, which can simultaneously modulate the electrical and thermal transport. InSb with high carrier mobility precipitated in the matrix can strengthen interface scattering at the phase boundaries, which can effectively scatter the heat-carrying phonons and thus yield an extremely low lattice thermal conductivity, while the high power factor is maintained. As a result, a maximum ZT of 1.22 is obtained. The average ZT in the temperature range of 300–425 K for Bi2Te2.7Se0.3–1.5 vol% InSb is 1.14, which is at least 15% larger than that of previously reported values. Our results demonstrate that for n-type bismuth-telluride-based alloys, imbedding nanostructured phases with a high carrier mobility is an effective strategy for enhancing the performance of the state-of-the-art thermoelectric systems.