Application of Ion-Imprinting Technology in the Field of Radiochemistry

Ion-imprinting technology(IIT) is a process to synthesize functional polymers, i.e. ion-imprinted polymers(IIPs), using specific ions as templates. Because of the strong affinities and high selectivities towards the template ions, IIPs have outstanding advantages in the preconcentration and separation of ions in complicated environments and attract much attention. In the field of radiochemistry, there are also many problems about the preconcentration and separation of metal ions, where the concentration of target ions is very low and the composition of radioactive samples is very complicated. Therefore, IIPs will be widely applied in this field for their outstanding advantages. After the brief introduction of the principle of IIT and the synthetic methods of IIPs, this article reviewed the previous achievements of IIT in the field of radiochemistry (e.g., radiochemical analysis, extraction of uranium from seawater, treatment of low level radioactive waste), where the template ions included UO²⁺₂, Th⁴⁺, Sr²⁺, Cs⁺, ZrO²⁺, and lanthanide ions. Besides, the perspectives of IIT in the field of radiochemistry are also presented.