A novel ion-imprinted amidoxime-functionalized UHMWPE fiber based on radiation-induced crosslinking for selective adsorption of uranium

Junxuan Ao; Hongjun Zhang; Xiao Xu; Fujia Yao; Lin Ma; Lan Zhang; Bangjiao Ye; Qingnuan Li; Lu Xu; Hongjuan Ma

doi:10.1039/c9ra05440e

A novel ion-imprinted amidoxime-functionalized UHMWPE fiber based on radiation-induced crosslinking for selective adsorption of uranium

RSC Adv. 2019 Sep 10;9(49):28588-28597. doi: 10.1039/c9ra05440e. eCollection 2019 Sep 9.

Authors

Junxuan Ao^{1

2}, Hongjun Zhang³, Xiao Xu¹, Fujia Yao⁴, Lin Ma^{1

2}, Lan Zhang¹, Bangjiao Ye³, Qingnuan Li¹, Lu Xu¹, Hongjuan Ma¹

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai 201800 China liqingnuan@sinap.ac.cn xulu@sinap.ac.cn mahongjuan@sinap.ac.cn.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China.
³ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei 230026 China.
⁴ Jining University Qufu 273155 China.

Abstract

A novel uranium-imprinted adsorbent (AO-Imp fiber) was prepared by radiation-induced crosslinking of amidoxime-functionalized ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber (AO fiber). The porous structure was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) spectroscopy after ion imprinting. This ion-imprinted fiber exhibited enhanced adsorption selectivity for uranium in the form of both UO₂ ^2- and [UO₂(CO₃)₃]^4- in batch experiments. Compared with AO fiber, the adsorption capacity of the AO-Imp(250) fiber for uranium increased from 0.36 mg g^-1 to 1.00 mg g^-1 in simulated seawater and from 5.02 mg g^-1 to 12.03 mg g^-1 in simulated acid effluent, while its adsorption capacities for other co-existing metal ions were particularly low. This study provides an approach to prepare ion-imprinted adsorbents without introducing crosslinking reagents, which may be a promising method for uranium extraction.