Innovative nanocomposite of intercalated alginate on nanomagnetite@ Al2O3@nanobentonite for uptake recovery of 152-154Eu and 60Co radionuclides from nuclear wastewater.

In this study, an innovative nanocomposite has been assembled through the intercalation of alginate onto the surface of nanomagnetite@nano-Al₂O₃@nanobentonite, resulting in the formation of Alg@N-Fe₃O₄@N-Al₂O₃@N-Bent. The developed nanocomposite underwent characterization through various techniques, including FT-IR, TGA, SEM, and XRD to refer to an average particle size at 80.0-90.0 nm with numerous related functional groups of its constituting unites. The evaluation of Alg@N-Fe₃O₄@N-Al₂O₃ aimed to identify its capacity to uptake and recover two radioactive nuclides, viz. ⁶⁰Co and ^152-154Eu, from nuclear wastewater. The outcomes of the study revealed that the most favorable conditions for the uptake of ⁶⁰Co and ^152-154Eu were a pH level of 6.0 and a contact time of 4.0 min. Under these conditions, the maximum uptake capacity values were determined as 82.71 mg g^-1 (⁶⁰Co) and 180.4 mg g^- 1 (^152-154Eu). The uptake process was characterized by fitting the data to pseudo-first and pseudo-second order models, in addition to this; the ^152-154Eu nuclide was specifically also fitted to the intra-particle model. The related adsorption isotherm models to the uptake of ⁶⁰Co and ^152-154Eu were investigated and the findings indicated that ^152-154Eu nuclide was well-fitted to the Langmuir and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) models, whereas ⁶⁰Co nuclide showed strong alignment with the Langmuir, Temkin, and D-R models. The outlined results validated the effectiveness of the Alg@N-Fe₃O₄@N-Al₂O₃ nanocomposite in the remediation of polluted nuclear wastewater with the radioactive nuclides ^152-154Eu and ⁶⁰Co, providing a strong emphasis in minimizing of their risks before being released into the environment.