Synergistic effects of different co-monomers on the uranium adsorption performance of amidoximated polyethylene nonwoven fabric in natural seawater

Abstract

Several co-monomers were co-grafted with acrylonitrile onto polyethylene nonwoven fabric to prepare amidoximated sorbents. The grafted co-monomer was found to play an important role in the uranium adsorption capacity and sorption selectivity of amidoximated sorbent in natural seawater in the following order: acrylamide (AAm) < acrylic acid (AA) < itaconic acid (ITA) < methacrylic acid (MAA), which agreed well with the result in U-spike brine. The amidoximated sorbent co-grafted with MAA exhibited the highest uranium adsorption capacity (1.05 mg/g) and the best uranium/vanadium sorption selectivity (U/V mass ratio: ~ 0.95) after 56 days of immersion in natural seawater.