Supporting of Potassium Copper Hexacyanoferrate on Porous Activated Carbon Substrate for Cesium Separation

Activated carbon (AC) was chosen for carrying potassium copper hexacyanoferrate (KCuCF) to prepare a new Cs-selective material. The adsorbent was prepared by repetitious batch precipitation reaction of Cu2+ with [Fe(CN)6]4−. Characterization analyses identified the backbone formula of the activated carbon-supported KCuCF with K2Cu[Fe(CN)6], and shown the successful loading of KCuCF microcrystals on the porous carbon substrate with a loading percentage of 12.5 wt%, and with BET specific surface area and a total pore volume of 527.8 m2/g and 0.38 cm3/g for AC and 160.8 m2/g and 0.16 cm3/g for KCuCF-loaded activated carbon (KCuCF-AC), respectively. The optimal Cs adsorption capacity of about 0.46 mmol·g−1 was observed between the HNO3 concentration of 0.5–1.5 M, and the capacity even reached to 0.38 mmol·g−1 in the presence of a large amount of competing cations. The results indicate that activated carbon has no significant effect on the selectivity of the as-synthesized composite.