STEM与日常科技·英语30篇（6）
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How Scientists Select Materials to Pull Uranium from Seawater
科学家如何筛选从海水中提取铀的吸附材料
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Seawater holds about 4.5 billion tons of uranium—enough to power reactors for thousands of years.
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But its concentration is extremely low: just 3.3 parts per trillion, mixed among many competing ions like sodium and calcium.
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Effective adsorbents must bind uranium strongly while ignoring these far more abundant elements.
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Scientists test polymer fibers coated with amidoxime groups, which chemically ‘recognize’ uranium’s unique shape and charge.
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They run seawater through lab columns packed with candidate materials and measure how much uranium sticks after days or weeks.
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Real-world tests happen offshore, where fibers hang in mesh bags for months to assess durability and fouling resistance.
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X-ray spectroscopy confirms whether uranium bonds are stable—or break down due to salt corrosion or biofilm growth.
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Cost matters too: ideal materials regenerate cleanly after acid washing, allowing reuse for five or more cycles.
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Japan and China lead field trials, aiming for extraction costs below $300 per kilogram—competitive with mining.
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This work merges chemistry, oceanography, and materials engineering to unlock a vast, renewable nuclear fuel source.