Advances in the management of radioactive wastes and radionuclide contamination in environmental compartments: a review

Several anthropogenic activities produce radioactive materials into the environment. According to reports, exposure to high concentrations of radioactive elements such as potassium (⁴⁰K), uranium (²³⁸U and ²³⁵U), and thorium (²³²Th) poses serious health concerns. The scarcity of reviews addressing the occurrence/sources, distribution, and remedial solutions of radioactive contamination in the ecosystems has fueled data collection for this bibliometric survey. In rivers and potable water, reports show that several parts of Europe and Asia have recorded radionuclide concentrations much higher than the permissible level of 1 Bq/L. According to various investigations, activity concentrations of gamma-emitting radioactive elements discovered in soils are higher than the global average crustal values, especially around mining activities. Adsorption technique is the most prevalent remedial method for decontaminating radiochemically polluted sites. However, there is a need to investigate integrated approaches/combination techniques. Although complete radionuclide decontamination utilizing the various technologies is feasible, future research should focus on cost-effectiveness, waste minimization, sustainability, and rapid radionuclide decontamination. Radioactive materials can be harnessed as fuel for nuclear power generation to meet worldwide energy demand. However, proper infrastructure must be put in place to prevent catastrophic disasters.

Green and scalable synthesis of 3D porous carbons microstructures as electrode materials for high rate capability supercapacitors

Porous carbon nanostructures have long been studied because of their importance in many natural phenomena and their use in numerous applications. A more recent development is the ability to produce porous carbon materials with tuneable properties for electrochemical applications, which has enabled new research directions towards the production of suitable carbon materials for energy storage applications. Thus, this work explores the activation of carbon from polyaniline (PANI) using a less-corrosive potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃) salt, with different mass ratios of PANI and the activating agent (K₂CO₃ as compared to commonly used KOH). The obtained activated carbon exhibits a specific surface area (SSA) of up to ∼1700 m² g^-1 for a carbon derived PANI : K₂CO₃ ratio of 1 : 6. Moreover, the prepared samples were tested as electrode materials for supercapacitors with the results showing excellent electrical double layer capacitor behavior. Charge storage was still excellent for scan rates of up to 2000 mV s^-1, and a capacitance retention of 70% at a very high specific current of 50 A g^-1 was observed. Furthermore, the fabricated device can deliver an energy density of 25 W h kg^-1 at a specific current of 0.625 A g^-1 and a power density of 260 W kg^-1 in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bistrifluorosulfonylimide (EMIM-TFSI) ionic liquid, with excellent rate capability after cycling for 16 000 cycles at 3.0 V with ∼98% efficiency. These results are promising and demonstrate the electrode's potential for energy storage, leading to the conclusion that K₂CO₃ is a very good alternative to corrosive activation agents such as KOH in order to achieve high electrochemical performance.

Correction: A high energy density asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing a nickel phosphate/graphene foam composite as the cathode and carbonized iron cations adsorbed onto polyaniline as the anode

Correction for ‘A high energy density asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing a nickel phosphate/graphene foam composite as the cathode and carbonized iron cations adsorbed onto polyaniline as the anode’ by A. A. Mirghni et al., RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 11608–11621.

A high energy density asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing a nickel phosphate/graphene foam composite as the cathode and carbonized iron cations adsorbed onto polyaniline as the anode

This work presents the effect of different contents of graphene foam (GF) on the electrochemical capacitance of nickel phosphate Ni₃(PO₄)₂ nano-rods as an electrode material for hybrid electrochemical energy storage device applications.