Research Progress of Materials for Photocatalytic Reduction of Uranium in Water

In recent years, semiconductor photocatalytic methods have made great progress in the reduction and extraction of uranium from water. In recent years, due to its advantages of less pollution, low energy, and high material reuse efficiency, photocatalysis has become an important direction in the study of reduction and extraction of uranium in water, and it also has the potential to treat nuclear wastewater and extract uranium from seawater. This article reviews the mechanism of photocatalytic reduction of uranium, and the characteristics, synthesis and classification methods of catalyst materials. In order to make the classification more intuitive and specific, classification is based on composition rather than structure, and it is divided into titanium dioxide and its modified composite materials, graphite phase carbon nitride and its derivatives, bismuth photocatalysts, metal sulfide photocatalysts, etc. The advantages and disadvantages of different photocatalysts were analyzed and a series of comparisons were made to provide reference and basis for research on uranium extraction through photocatalytic reduction.