TY - JOUR
T1 - Recent Progress in Functional Nanomaterials towards the Storage, Separation, and Removal of Tritium
AU - Rethinasabapathy, Muruganantham
AU - Ghoreishian, Seyed Majid
AU - Hwang, Seung Kyu
AU - Han, Young Kyu
AU - Roh, Changhyun
AU - Huh, Yun Suk
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2023/11/28
Y1 - 2023/11/28
N2 - Tritium is a sustainable next-generation prime fuel for generating nuclear energy through fusion reactions to fulfill the increasing global energy demand. Owing to the scarcity–high demand tradeoff, tritium must be bred inside a fusion reactor to ensure sustainability and must therefore be separated from its isotopes (protium and deuterium) in pure form, stored safely, and supplied on demand. Existing multistage isotope separation technologies exhibit low separation efficiency and require intensive energy inputs and large capital investments. Furthermore, tritium-contaminated heavy water constitutes a major fraction of nuclear waste, and accidents like the one at Fukushima Daiichi leave behind thousands of tons of diluted tritiated water, whose removal is beneficial from an environmental point of view. In this review, the recent progress and main research trends in hydrogen isotope storage and separation by focusing on the use of metal hydride (e.g., intermetallic, and high-entropy alloys), porous (e.g., zeolites and metal organic frameworks (MOFs)), and 2-D layered (e.g., graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and MXenes) materials to separate and store tritium based on their diverse functionalities are discussed. Finally, the challenges and future directions for implementing tritium storage and separation are summarized in the reviewed materials.
AB - Tritium is a sustainable next-generation prime fuel for generating nuclear energy through fusion reactions to fulfill the increasing global energy demand. Owing to the scarcity–high demand tradeoff, tritium must be bred inside a fusion reactor to ensure sustainability and must therefore be separated from its isotopes (protium and deuterium) in pure form, stored safely, and supplied on demand. Existing multistage isotope separation technologies exhibit low separation efficiency and require intensive energy inputs and large capital investments. Furthermore, tritium-contaminated heavy water constitutes a major fraction of nuclear waste, and accidents like the one at Fukushima Daiichi leave behind thousands of tons of diluted tritiated water, whose removal is beneficial from an environmental point of view. In this review, the recent progress and main research trends in hydrogen isotope storage and separation by focusing on the use of metal hydride (e.g., intermetallic, and high-entropy alloys), porous (e.g., zeolites and metal organic frameworks (MOFs)), and 2-D layered (e.g., graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and MXenes) materials to separate and store tritium based on their diverse functionalities are discussed. Finally, the challenges and future directions for implementing tritium storage and separation are summarized in the reviewed materials.
KW - hydrogen isotopes
KW - layered materials
KW - metal hydrides
KW - porous materials
KW - quantum sieving
KW - tritium separation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174889177&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/adma.202301589
DO - 10.1002/adma.202301589
M3 - Review article
C2 - 37435972
AN - SCOPUS:85174889177
SN - 0935-9648
VL - 35
JO - Advanced Materials
JF - Advanced Materials
IS - 48
M1 - 2301589
ER -