LAUSR

Iodine (I2) capture and storage is very important in many industrial practices. Herein, we demonstrate strong iodine (I2) adsorption using millimeter-sized spherical bismuth sulfide@polyacrylonitrile (Bi2S3@PAN) hybrid beads. Our findings showed that the iodine capture capacity of Bi2S3@PAN was 986 mg g−1, which could reach approximately 4.0-fold that of commercial silver-exchanged zeolite (AgZ). Besides maintaining the crystallinity of the embedded Bi2S3 powder in the polyacrylonitrile matrix, the hybrid beads exhibited high capacity and a fast I2 absorption rate. Through characterization, we revealed that the adsorption of iodine on Bi2S3@PAN was mainly chemical adsorption (the formation of thermodynamically stable BiI3). Overall, the merits of the cost-effective process, capability of achieving scale-up of preparation, and the good performance in iodine capture suggest that Bi2S3@PAN may be considered as a promising candidate for the removal of radioactive iodine from reprocessing plant off-gas streams.