Toward a low-cost uranium-adsorbing material based on nonwoven fabrics and photografting technology

Abstract

Amidoxime-functionalized polymeric adsorbents have attracted great interest for uranium extraction from seawater. However, the current graft polymerization method is time-consuming (2–6 h), wasteful in reagent, and hence not economical. Here, amidoxime-functionalized adsorbents based on low-cost polypropylene melt-blown nonwoven fabric (MBF) are produced by a simple, fast and also low-cost surface photografting technology, by which more than 80% of reagents can be saved and grafting time can be reduced to 3 min. The fabricated adsorbents retain their mechanical properties and exhibit excellent uranium adsorption properties, with a maximum uranium adsorption capacity of 400 mg g−1 when the monomer ratio of AN to AA is 8 : 2. Moreover, we showed that the adsorbents could be either reused or simply incinerated for uranium recovery. The photografting technology has great potential for low-cost, continuous industrial production of uranium-adsorbing material.

Keywords: Uranium extraction from seawater; Amidoxime; Nonwoven fabric; Surface photografting.

Graphical abstract: Toward a low-cost uranium-adsorbing material based on nonwoven fabrics and photografting technology

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 mar 2024
Accepted
26 iyl 2024
First published
07 avq 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Ind. Chem. Mater., 2024, Advance Article

Toward a low-cost uranium-adsorbing material based on nonwoven fabrics and photografting technology

Z. Zhong, Y. Huang and W. Yang, Ind. Chem. Mater., 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4IM00034J

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