Minerals as well as freshwater can be obtained by desalinating seawater with solar power facilities for the sustainable development of human civilization. For instance, hydrogels have shown great power for solar-powered water evaporation potential, although the highly efficient and specific target extraction method remains to be expanded.
In a recent report published in Science Advances, Hanxue Liang and a team of researchers at the college of chemistry, and materials science in China, describe the process of highly efficient seawater desalination and the specific extraction of uranium with smart DNA hydrogels.
The DNA hydrogels promoted the evaporation of water, and the uranyl-specific DNA hydrogel exhibited a high capture capacity of 5.7 mg per gram for uranium from natural seawater due to rapid ion transport driven by solar-powered interfacial evaporation and high selectivity. These developments could enable easy-to-use devices suited for future seawater treatment.
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