Single-atom tungsten engineering of MOFs with biomimetic antibiofilm activity toward robust uranium extraction from seawater

Abstract

Selective uranium extraction from seawater is challenging because of ubiquitous marine biofouling and poor reusability of adsorbents. A reusable atomic-scale tungsten nanozyme integrating uranium capture capacity and intrinsic haloperoxidase-like activity is constructed, resulting in strong antibiofouling ability and superb reusability for uranium extraction after consecutive multiple regeneration cycles in bio-aggressive seawater. • Atomically dispersed tungsten is anchored in metal organic frameworks (W-UiO). • The presence of atomic-scale tungsten endows W-UiO with haloperoxidase-mimicking activity. • W-UiO nanozyme exerts strong antibacterial activity and inhibition effect against marine microbial colonization. • Such nanozyme exhibits excellent reusability for uranium extraction from seawater. Uranium is the essential element for nuclear power industry. Selective uranium extraction from seawater is very attractive, but challenging because ubiquitous marine biofouling seriously impairs the uranium extraction capacity and reusability of absorbents in bio-aggressive seawater. Herein, we construct a reusable nanozyme for uranium recovery from seawater based on atomically dispersed tungsten anchored on metal organic frameworks (W-UiO). We illustrate that W-UiO nanozyme mimics naturally occurring vanadium haloperoxidase that catalytically converting halides to biocidal hypobromous acid, inducing strong antibiofouling activity against marine microbial colonization. As demonstrated, W-UiO nanozyme shows superb reusability in raw seawater simultaneously, preserving a 78.0% of its initial uranium capture capacity (6.8 times higher than its pristine counterpart) after five consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles. This study is anticipated to spur rationally realizing robust absorbents by mimicking the natural enzymes for practical application in uranium recovery from seawater.