Dual-Pathway Catalytic Proton Exchange in Water Distillation Enables Record Detritiation of Tritiated Water
-MIL-101(Cr), which achieves a record separation efficiency of 42.5 theoretical plates per meter. This corresponds to a 134-fold improvement over the best reported packing and a 6 orders of magnitude enhancement over commercial packings at an industrially relevant packed height of 10 m. The exceptional performance originates from a dual-pathway catalytic proton exchange mechanism, in which Cr-oxo clusters and amino-functionalized organic ligands provide parallel proton-transfer pathways through hydrogen-bond networks of water molecules. These dual pathways markedly strengthen liquid-solid isotope exchange and enable an efficient and continuous vapor-liquid-solid triphasic distillation process beyond the limits of conventional biphasic operation. This work provides a promising strategy for advancing detritiation technologies and mitigating tritium releases from the nuclear industry.
Authors
- Shuao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1526-1102)
- Ni Luan
- Zhifang Chai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-6067)
- Qian Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5946-4825)
- Shuya Zhang
- Hanzhou Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6101-3935)
- Tianping Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6702-3926)
- Li J (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6679-5227)
- Xing Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0683-0753)
- Jie Shu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2317-9835)
- Shengman Gao
- Yue Rong
- Zihan Sun
- Chao Peng
Institutions
- Harbin Engineering University (CN)
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (CN)
- Analysis and Testing Centre (CN)
- Ministry of Education (KR)
- PRG S&Tech (South Korea)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Published
- 2026-06-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c03906
- Primary Topic
- Chemical Reactions and Isotopes
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai)