The separation and purification of uranium has gained considerable importance with increasing demand of this element for clean energy applications. The storage of uranium in sea water is humongous due to its vast volume covering the earth's surface (estimated around 4.5 billion tons), therefore, developing effective adsorbents for uranium extraction from seawater is very promising. So far, the most efficient uranium adsorbents were developed by Japanese based on grafting acrylonitrile and methacrylic acid on electron beam irradiated polyethylene fibers, followed by amidoximation with hydroxylamine and potassium hydroxide conditioning. To eliminate the high energy consumption step, electron beam irradiation, we focus on developing high surface area adsorbents based on crosslinked polymers. Divinylbenzene (DVB) as crosslinker and different monomers containing either nitrile group (-CN) or acid groups (-COOH, -SO3H, -PO(OH)2) were used to synthesize the crosslinked polymers. The effect of monomer types, monomer ratios, as well as crosslinking density on the surface area and uranium adsorption capacity of the polymeric adsorbents were systematically investigated and will be presented in this talk.

Uranium adsorbents based on crosslinked polymers

244th National Meeting (2012)

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