An article  about a new composite material for cleaning radioactive water by a young scientist, Associate Professor of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at MEPhI Konstantin Katin, was published in the Journal of Molecular Liquid.

Nuclear power plant

The adsorbent, developed by Konstantin Katin using computer simulation, captures 1.5 times more uranyl (the most radioactively dangerous substance that is formed as a result of the operation of nuclear power plants) than all known analogues.

The new adsorbent is environmentally safe, as it consists only of components of natural origin - chitosan, vermiculite and lignin - and its production does not require any actions that could harm the environment.

During the purification process, two types of adsorption are observed - spontaneous and endothermic, which makes it possible to further extract the "caught" uranyl from the adsorbent (for example, to reduce the amount of waste or for reuse).