The selective extraction of uranium from the environment can lead to a variety of applications from waste remediation to the mining of UO22+ from seawater.  Several studies over the past sixty years has concluded that the amidoxime moiety, RC(NH2)=NOH is highly selective for the uranyl cation, even under such complex conditions as seawater.  Despite these studies, only recently has solid-state structural data been acquired that supports the ?2 coordination of amidoxime to the uranyl ion.  These recent results suggest a higher stability complex and are potentially linked to the selectivity of the amidoxime for the uranyl cation.  We have modified both solid (small organic molecules and biopolymers) and liquid (ionic liquids) materials with this functional group and have applied them towards the separation of the uranyl cation.  We will discuss the synthesis and modification of these materials and their applied separations of uranium.

Amidoxime functionalized materials for the selective extraction of the uranium

244th National Meeting (2012)

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