Synthesis of a New Amberlite 7HP Sorbent Impregnated by Nano Manganese Dioxide and Its Applications for Uranium Separation

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this work, a commercially available Amberlite 7HP has been modified using nano-flakes MnO2 prepared by a simple reduction method. The characterization of the new sorbent impregnated by nano manganese dioxide was performed by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transformation infrared spectrometric analyses. The performance of the new sorbent for ion separation in aqueous medium was studied in detail by varying the pH, contact time, initial concentration, bed height, and flow rate. The maximum sorption has been achieved at a solution of pH 3.1. Sorbed ions were desorbed with 10 mL of 1.5 M HCl solution. The kinetics and isothermal parameters of the sorption of ions onto the new sorbent have been studied. The kinetic experimental data properly correlate with the second-order kinetic model and the time required to reach sorption equilibrium is 240 min. The sorption data could be well interpreted by the Langmuir sorption isotherm and the monolayer sorption capacity was found to be 56.3 mg · g−1. The sorption data were fitted to two well-established fixed-bed sorption models, namely, Thomas and Yoon–Nelson models, with a correlation coefficient, R2, ≥0.993. The separation performance of the new sorbent was demonstrated by using different real samples. Consequently, the developed sorbent resin was successfully utilized for the separation of uranyl ions in safeguard applications.