Investigating the Chemically Controlled Self-Assembly of Radionuclide-Nanomaterial Hybrids

目前，用于环境样品和放射性核废料中放射性核素的化学分离和回收的传统色谱柱面临许多局限性：样品制备耗时长，选择性不足，在存在重金属等化学干扰物种的情况下，目标放射性核素的吸收往往很慢。因此，鉴于现实世界对更有效和选择性地分离目标放射性核素的化学分离的需求，存在着探索新技术的适当需要。近几十年来，纳米材料因其极具吸引力的固有性质而在广泛的技术应用领域得到了研究。这类材料的另一个吸引人的特点是极高的表面积与体积比，这引入了纳米尺度的维度，并促进了互惠材料与纳米材料表面的耦合，如冠醚，以帮助形成增强的杂化材料。因此，正是在这种背景下，纳米材料可以被认为是分离、吸附和回收长寿命放射性核素的理想支架。因此，本项目的目的是研究由萃取剂、冠醚和碳纳米材料、碳纳米管或氧化石墨烯组成的新型功能化杂化纳米材料的可行性。提出了一项设计、合成和表征具有特定放射性核素负载能力的冠醚功能化碳纳米材料的研究计划。对现有纳米材料系统的研究表明，这种材料是吸附和最终分离环境水和核废料样品中存在的典型放射性核素的理想材料。另一个值得考虑的研究应用是在诊断学领域，智能纳米材料被进一步设计为具有不同的功能，以满足当前对增强剂量控制和用于核医学部门的Re-223靶向放射治疗的需求。

Currently, traditional chromatography columns used for the chemical separation and recovery of radionuclides present in environmental samples and radioactive nuclear waste, face many limitations: sample preparation is time-consuming, selectivity is inadequate, and uptake of target radionuclides is often slow in the presence of chemical interferent species, e.g. heavy metals. Thus, given real-world demands for more efficient and selective chemical separation of target radionuclides, there exists a pertinent need to explore new technologies. In recent decades, nanomaterials have been investigated in a vast range of technological applications on account of their highly attractive intrinsic properties. An additional attractive feature of this class of materials is an extremely high surface area to volume ratio, which introduces nanoscale dimensionality and facilitates the coupling of mutually beneficial materials to the nanomaterial surface such as crown ethers to help form enhanced hybrid materials. Hence, it is in this context that nanomaterials may be considered as ideal scaffolds for the separation, adsorption and recovery of long-lived radionuclides. As a result, the aim of this project is to investigate the viability of novel functionalised hybrid nanomaterials consisting of the extractant agent, crown ethers and the carbon nanomaterial, carbon nanotubes or graphene oxide. A programme of research was proposed to design, synthesise and characterise crown ether-functionalised carbon nanomaterials designed with specific radionuclide loading capabilities. Research into existing nanomaterial systems has shown that such materials are ideal for the adsorption and eventual separation of typical radionuclides present in environmental water and nuclear waste samples. Another research application of consideration is in the area of diagnostics whereby the smart nanomaterials are designed further with different functionalities to meet current demands for enhanced dose control and targeted radiotherapies of Radium-223 for the nuclear medicine sector.