Highly selective extraction of uranium from wastewater using amine-bridged diacetamide-functionalized silica
Fan Zhang, Yi Liu, Kaiqiang Ma, Heng Yan, Yue Luo, Fengcheng Wu, Chu‐Ting Yang, Sheng Hu, Shuming Peng
Abstract
A major environmental concern related to nuclear energy is wastewater contaminated with uranium, thus necessitating the development of pollutant-reducing materials with efficiency and effectiveness. Herein, highly selective mesoporous silicas functionalized with amine-bridged diacetamide ligands SBA-15-ABDMA were prepared. Different spectroscopy techniques were used to probe the chemical environment and reactivity of the chelating ligands before and after sorption . The results showed that the functionalized SBA-15-ABDMA had a strong affinity for uranium at low pH (pH = 3) with desirable sorption capacity (68.82 mg/g) and good reusability (> 5). It showed excellent separation performance with a high distribution coefficient ( K d,U > 10 5 mL/g) and separation factors SF U/Ln > 1000 at a pH of 3.5 in the presence of lanthanide nuclides, alkaline earth metal and transition metal ions . In particular, SiO 2 spheres-ABDMA was used as a column material, which achieved excellent recovery of U(VI) (> 98%) and good reusability for samples of simulated mining and nuclear industries wastewater. XPS and crystallography studies clearly illustrated the tridentate coordination mode of U(VI)/PEABDMA and the mechanism and origin behind the high selectivity for U.