Mesoporous-confined short chain polyamidoxime in MIL-101 matrix for enhanced uranium adsorption

Abstract

Molecular-level design and construction of uranium-adsorbents are pivotal for the breakthrough development of uranium extraction from seawater. Herein, we proposed a strategy of mesoporous-confined short chain polyamidoxime in MIL-101 matrices (named MIL-101-PAO) to enhance the adsorption performance of uranium by an in situ functionalized method. The as-optimized MIL-101-PAO achieves the maximum adsorption capacity of an impressive 819 mg/g at pH = 8.0 and an excellent adsorption removal rate of 95.3% with the concentration of coexisting ions being 1.0 × 10−4 mol/L, obviously superior to other MOF-based uranium adsorbents. Pore analysis combined with XPS results reveal that the amino and oxime groups from the mesoporous-confined short chain PAO act as flexible active sites for uranium coordination. This strategy shed a light on the rational design of new MOF-polymeric-fibers with excellent uranium enrichment and separation efficiency.