China develops method to extract 8x more uranium from seawater than US

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a sponge-like material to extract uranium from seawater at over eight times the US Department of Energy's target. The material, called PhosCage, contains phosphate groups that act as a chemical trap for uranium. The researchers were able to extract about 50.4mg of uranium per gram of adsorbent from natural seawater samples.