Extracting uranium from high salinity seawater at ultralow concentrations would beneficially contribute to the sustainable utilization of nuclear energy, but it poses a significant challenge. Here we report a sunlight-driven photocatalysis-assisted extraction (SUPER) method by utilizing a bifunctional carbon nitride material, CN550, which has shown about a tenfold improvement in both adsorption capacity and photocatalytic activity compared to g-C₃N₄. Uranyl ions could be captured on the surface of CN550, and then deposited as metastudtite nanoparticles with light illumination. Compared with the pure physicochemical adsorption (PA) method, a tenfold higher uranium extraction capacity, up to 1556 mg g⁻¹, has been attained. Additionally, a 25 times improvement of the partition coefficient (PC), from 0.312 to 7.778 L g⁻¹, has also been achieved. In spiked real seawater, the extraction capacity can still achieve more than 1000 mg g⁻¹, and the SUPER method has been found to work under natural sunlight illumination as well.

从高盐度海水中提取超低浓度的铀将有利于核能的可持续利用，但这构成了重大挑战。在这里，我们报告了一种利用双功能氮化碳材料CN550的阳光驱动光催化辅助萃取（SUPER）方法，该方法与gC ₃ N ₄相比，吸附能力和光催化活性均提高了约十倍。铀酰离子可被捕获在CN550的表面，然后在光照下沉积为偏硅酸盐纳米粒子。与纯物理化学吸附（PA）方法相比，铀提取能力高出十倍，最高可达1556 mg g ^-1，已实现。另外，还已经实现了分配系数（PC）从0.312到7.778 L g ^-1的25倍的改善。在加标的真实海水中，提取能力仍然可以达到1000 mg g ^-1以上，并且已经发现SUPER方法也可以在自然阳光照射下工作。