Spent fuel reprocessing is a key link to ensure the sustainable development of nuclear energy as a clean energy. If concentrated nitric acid is used in the spent fuel processing, it will lead to strong acidity and high temperature, and a large amount of radioactive iodine will be released from the reprocessing facility. The main substances in the dissolved waste stream produced in this process are the highly volatile diatomic elemental iodine and a small amount of organic iodine.
129I and
131I are typical radioactive isotopes of nuclear waste (where the half-life of
129I is as long as 1.57×10
7 years)
[1]. Radioactive iodine can rapidly diffuse into the air, resulting in persistent radioactive contamination of the environment, increasing the incidence of human thyroid disease and harming human reproductive and metabolic systems. However, due to the complex conditions of fuel reprocessing waste gas, such as high system temperature, high environmental humidity, high irradiation intensity, extremely low iodine concentration and small partial pressure of the system, and a large amount of acid gas, how to effectively remove radioactive iodine in the reprocessing system is still a challenge. Therefore, it is very important to develop iodine adsorption materials with simplicity, effectiveness and easy recycling. In the past decade, porous materials as iodine adsorbents have attracted the attention of researchers, mainly including porous organic cages, ion-exchanged zeolites, silver-based zeolites and activated carbon. However, inorganic solid adsorbents such as silver-based zeolites have high cost, poor adsorption performance and adverse effects on the environment
[2][3][4][5]. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous organic polymers (POPs) have stronger adsorption capacity for iodine than zeolites because of their high surface area, but their stability of capturing iodine vapor at high temperature and in solution is low
[6][7]. And in the adsorption process, the complex and irregular pores in the material often lead to pore blockage, so the desired adsorption effect can not be achieved. These drawbacks will limit their practical use in iodine capture. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a new type of crystalline organic porous polymers formed by covalent bonding, which have orderly internal structure and controllable pore structure. The regular pores of COFs can be used to adsorb iodine molecules without causing pore blockage, and because of its good thermal stability, it can capture iodine at high temperature and in solution. In the process of irradiation nuclear fuel processing, COFs can be used to replace concentrated acid to effectively adsorb some long-lived radionuclides (VRL nuclides) from spent fuel. Therefore, COFs have great practical value in dealing with the emergency leakage of radioactive iodine or organic iodine in nuclear accidents or spent fuel reprocessing. Covalent organic framework materials with different pore sizes and polarities can be synthesized by selecting building units with efficient capture ability for iodine. Therefore, COFs materials have great potential in capturing radioactive iodine and become ideal materials for capturing radioactive iodine. Since Yaghi et al. First successfully prepared COFs materials in 2005, it has gradually become a hot research field of current science and technology
[8]. In this paper, the research progress of iodine capture by COFs is reviewed.