Hydrogels Containing Prussian Blue Nanoparticles Toward Removal of Radioactive Cesium Ions

Recent reports have demonstrated the practical application of Prussian blue (PB) nanoparticles toward environmental clean-up of radionuclide Cs-137. Herein, we prepared a large amount of PB nanoparticles by mixing both iron(III) chloride and sodium ferrocyanide hydrate as starting precursors. The obtained PB nanoparticles show a high surface area (440 m(2) . g(-1)) and consequently an excellent uptake ability of Cs ions from aqueous solutions. The uptake ability of Cs ions into poly(N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPA) hydrogel is drastically increased up to 156.7 m(2) . g(-1) after incorporating our PB nanoparticles, compared to 30.2 m(2) . g(-1) after using commercially available PB. Thus, our PB-containing PNIPA hydrogel can be considered as an excellent candidate for the removal of Cs ions from aqueous solutions, which will be useful for the remediation of the nuclear waste.