Carboxylate-functionalized organic nanocrystals for high-capacity uranium sorbents

Jinkyu Park; Jaeyeon Bae; Kangwoo Jin; Jinhee Park

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.03.007

Carboxylate-functionalized organic nanocrystals for high-capacity uranium sorbents

J Hazard Mater. 2019 Jun 5:371:243-252. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.03.007. Epub 2019 Mar 1.

Authors

Jinkyu Park¹, Jaeyeon Bae², Kangwoo Jin², Jinhee Park³

Affiliations

¹ Nuclear Chemistry Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111, Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34057, South Korea.
² Department of Emerging Materials Science, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), 333 Techno Jungang-daero, Dalseong-gun, Daegu, 42988, South Korea.
³ Department of Emerging Materials Science, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), 333 Techno Jungang-daero, Dalseong-gun, Daegu, 42988, South Korea. Electronic address: jinhee@dgist.ac.kr.

PMID: 30852276
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.03.007

Abstract

Carboxylate-functionalized organic nanocrystals (ONCs) derived from perylene diimide or naphthalene diimide were synthesized and carefully characterized as novel high-capacity uranium (U(VI)) sorbents. Adsorption studies using uranyl ions demonstrated that the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups on the surface of the ONCs play pivotal roles in U(VI) adsorption. ONCs formed from the condensation of perylene dianhydride and aminoisophthalic acid exhibit very high U(VI) adsorption capacities of 1393 mg g^-1 comparable to the highest capacity ever reported. The adsorption kinetics of the ONCs were found to obey the second-order model, indicating that chemisorption is the rate-determining step for U(VI) adsorption by these materials. Furthermore, the perylene-based ONC containing imidazole exhibited no pH dependency upon the U(VI) adsorption and the naphthalene-based ONC was able to remove up to 97.5% U(VI) from simulated nuclear industrial effluent containing many competing elements. These findings will facilitate the development of high-performance organic U(VI) sorbents with high densities of adsorption sites.

Keywords: High-capacity sorbent; Naphthalene diimides; Organic nanocrystal; Perylene diimides; Uranium.