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 ¹³⁷Cs. 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 m² · 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 m² · g^-1 after incorporating our PB nanoparticles, compared to 30.2 m² · 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.