The application of nanomaterials in energy and environmental fields has recently made great progress. As a key element in the nuclear industry, the discharge of uranium (U(VI)) contained wastewater usually induces environmental issues and waste of resources. Although the catalytically generated H₂O₂ by nanomaterials has recently shown application potential in extracting U(VI) from water, low-cost and highly efficient nanocatalysts are still urgently needed. In this work, a cheap and readily available piezocatalyst of calcium phosphate nanorods was successfully fabricated by calcining chicken bones. Under ultrasonication, H₂O₂ was produced and used to extract U(VI) from water. It is worth noting that the yield of H₂O₂ reached 179.7 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹, and the extraction efficiency of U(VI) in water reached 97.16% (100 ppm) within 330 min. Through the capture and quantitative analysis of the active species, it is found that the generation of H₂O₂ depends on the combination of soluble oxygen and piezoelectrons, which thus dominates the extraction of U(VI). This simple and powerful piezocatalytic strategy greatly reduces the cost of H₂O₂ production for U(VI) extraction in water, and is of great significance for the treatment of U(VI)-containing wastewater.

In this work, the influences of dielectrics with light absorption on the photonic bandgaps (PBGs) of porous alumina photonic crystals (PCs) were studied. Transmittance spectra of porous alumina PCs adsorbing ethanol showed that all the PBGs positions red-shifted; however, the transmittance of the PBG bottom showed different trends when the PBGs were located in different wavelength regions. In the near infrared region, liquid ethanol has strong light absorption, and, with the increase in adsorption, the PBG bottom transmittance of porous alumina PCs first increased and then decreased. However, in the visible light region, liquid ethanol has little light absorption, and thus, with the increase in adsorption, the PBG bottom transmittance of porous alumina PCs increased gradually all the time. Simulated results were consistent with the experimental results. The capillary condensation of organic vapors in the pores of porous alumina accounted for the change in the PBG bottom transmittance. The nonnegligible light absorption of the organic vapors was the cause of the decrease in the transmittance. The results for porous alumina PC adsorbing methanol, acetone, and toluene further confirmed the influences of light absorption on the PBG bottomed transmittance.