The Venus Flytrap, a carnivorous plant that would scare the hell out insects and arachnids for a simple reason that it catches and digests them gives a helping hand to scientists to save the environment. Taking inspiration from this creepy plant, researchers at Northwestern University have developed a material that might clean up radioactive waste easier and much more efficiently. According to the research, the material opens its pores to capture radioactive ion cesium, after which it snaps shut to entrap it.
Northwestern University researchers’ Venus Flytrap is a synthetic material made from layers of a gallium, sulfur and antimony compound cleans up the radioactive ion cesium, found in nuclear waste. The radioactive ion cesium is quite difficult to clean, as the ratio of harmless sodium ions to dangerous radioactive cesium ions is 1,000 to 1. But this magical material is just perfect to remove the cesium from a sodium-heavy solution. Let’s hope this development brings a new and improved change in nuclear waste removal.
Via: Treehugger