Researchers in Korea have discovered a new material that removes radioactive iodine using artificial intelligence (AI). The team plans to commercialize everything from powder for adsorbing radioactive contamination to filter systems for treating contaminated water through various academic and industrial collaborations in the future.
Professor Ryu Ho-jin from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and researcher Noh Joo-hwan from the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) announced on the 2nd that they have developed a technology to discover new materials that effectively remove iodine, which can become a radioactive contaminant, using AI.
In utilizing nuclear energy, managing radioactive waste is one of the key challenges. Especially, radioactive iodine has a long half-life and high mobility and biotoxicity, which can pose serious risks to the environment and human health.
Recent reports indicate that iodine, a radioactive contaminant, exists in the form of iodate in aqueous environments; however, existing silver-based adsorbents have shown low chemical adsorption strength, making them inefficient. Therefore, the development of new adsorbent materials capable of effectively removing iodate is urgent.
The research team found the optimal iodate adsorbent among compounds called 'layered double hydroxides' that contain various metal elements through an experimental strategy utilizing machine learning. By using AI, they were able to find a new material optimal for iodate removal by conducting experiments on only 16% of the total candidate substances.
The multi-metal layered double hydroxides based on copper, chromium, iron, and aluminum developed in this study showed an excellent adsorption performance of over 90% for iodate.
Professor Ryu noted, "Utilizing AI allows for the efficient identification of substances for radioactive contamination removal from a vast pool of new material candidates," adding that he expects this will contribute to accelerating research necessary for developing new materials for nuclear environmental remediation.
The research team has applied for a domestic patent for the developed powder technology and is in the process of filing for overseas patents based on this. In the future, they plan to enhance the performance of powders for adsorbing radioactive contamination and pursue commercialization strategies through academic-industrial collaboration in the field of contaminated water treatment filter development.
The results of this study were published online in the environmental international journal Journal of Hazardous Materials on May 26.
References
Journal of Hazardous Materials (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138735