Overall
- Language
- English
- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
-
Received January 7, 2026
Revised February 7, 2026
Accepted February 20, 2026
Available online July 25, 2026
-
This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Most Cited
Morphology-Dependent Uranium Adsorption on Zinc Oxide: Unraveling the Synergistic Role of Surface Area and Oxygen Vacancies
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-026-00686-3
Abstract
Zinc oxide (ZnO), a low-cost and environmentally benign semiconductor material, holds promise for uranium (U(VI))
adsorption due to its tunable morphology and hydroxyl-rich surface. However, the quantitative relationship between its
morphology, surface properties, and adsorption performance remains unclear, hindering the rational design of high-performance
adsorbents. To address this, four distinct ZnO morphologies were systematically synthesized and comparatively
evaluated for U(VI) removal. The adsorption performance followed the order: spherical flower-like (ZnO-1)>rod-like
(ZnO-3) > sheet-like (ZnO-2) > hollow spheres (ZnO-4). Remarkably, ZnO-1 achieved a high removal efficiency of
96.33% within 100 min. The superior performance is attributed to its unique hierarchical structure, which synergistically
maximizes both specific surface area and oxygen vacancy concentration, with the co-presence of both being essential for
optimal performance. This work elucidates a critical structure–property relationship and provides a clear design principle
for ZnO-based adsorbents: synergistic enhancement of both physical and chemical surface properties through targeted
morphology control.
