Research Advances of Application of Cyclodextrin Based Materials in Adsorption and Separation of Radioactive Ions.

With the rapid expansion of the scale of nuclear energy, the proper treatment of radioactive waste generated by the nuclear industry has become one of the most important issues for the further development of nuclear energy. Cyclodextrin, as a kind of cyclic oligosaccharide composed of several glucopyranose units, has a good prospect of application in the field of radioactive ions adsorption and separation, because of its special molecular structure of internal hydrophobicity and external hydrophilicity. However, due to the presence of a large number of hydroxyl groups in the cyclodextrin molecules, they are easily soluble in water. Generally, the solidification of cyclodextrins to insoluble solids is always needed before being used as adsorption materials. Depending on the different methods of " solidification", cyclodextrin based adsorbent materials can be divided into three types: loaded cyclodextrin materials, cyclodextrin polymer materials, and cyclodextrin inclusion complex materials. The synthesis and application research advances of the three types of cyclodextrin adsorbent materials in radioactive ion adsorption and separation are summarized, the related adsorption mechanisms are discussed. Besides, the perspectives of the cyclodextrin based adsorbents in the field of radioactive ion adsorption are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]