"The first phase of that work has just been completed," Clearfield says. "We are now waiting for a second phase of funding on the project."
Clearfield has shown that inorganic materials exchange ions more efficiently than organic materials, and they can better withstand radiation as well.
"For applications in nuclear waste and nuclear medicine, organic exchangers can only do part of the job," he says," because radioactivity may destroy the carbon-carbon bonds, which are essential in organic compounds."
Clearfield is eager to participate in a major project currently being set up by the European Commission, called the European Consortium. Focusing on the many applications of inorganic ion exchangers, the project will be led by the University of Helsinki in Finland, with groups at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, and the University of Salford in the United Kingdom, and four industrial firms.
Clearfield says that work on inorganic exchangers is far from being over.
"There are thousands of naturally occurring inorganic materials that can be used," he says. "Some of them are clays, others are natural minerals. Having solved their structure, we can use the information to synthesize materials that could select, by removing them, harmful species from the environment or industrial processes."
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Contact: Patrice Pages
patrice-pages@tamu.edu
979-845-4618
Texas A&M University
18-Jun-2001