Amidoxime-based polymer sorbents have been extensively studied for sequestering uranium from seawater.  Recovery of uranium from the sorbents is usually done by leaching with an acid such as 0.5 M hydrochloric acid.  The aid leaching method is effective for recovering uranium but causes damage to the sorbent due to hydrolysis of the functional groups attached to the polymer.  Supercritical fluid carbon dioxide (sc-CO2) is a non-aqueous solvent which has been used to extract uranium from solid substances with CO2-soluble ligands.  Our initial results using this ligand-assisted sc-CO2 elusion method to recover loaded uranium from an amidoxime-based sorbent are presented.  Ligands tested in the initial experiments include beta-diketones, Cyanex reagents and TBP-HNO3 complexes.  Spectroscopic techniques, (fluorescence, Raman and FTIR) are used to measure uranium distributions and uranyl coordination environment in the sorbent.

Uranium elution from amidoxime-based polymer sorbents using supercritical CO<sub>2</sub>

244th National Meeting (2012)

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Uranium elution from amidoxime-based polymer sorbents using supercritical CO2

Uranium elution from amidoxime-based polymer sorbents using supercritical CO₂