Developing eco-friendly and facile and low-cost prepared adsorbents for effective enrichment and recovery of uranium from nuclear waste solution is vital for resource sustainability and environmental safety. Attapulgite(AT), a most inexpensive natural fibrous clay holds great potential in the field of uranium treatment due to its high stability, large specific surface area, and exchangeable cations. However, its adsorption performance for uranium ions is limited by its relatively low density of surface functional groups.<br/>By exploiting mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) chemistry, we proposed a non-covalent method to modify ATs by dopamine (DA), which could adhere to ATs surface and spontaneously self polymerization. This method is very simple as well as without using toxic organic solvents. More importantly, the PDA with abundant catechol and amine functional group provides an excellent platform for binding to uranium. Overall, the as-prepared AT@PDA is a potential biosorbent for uranium recovery and other environmental applications.

Mussel-inspired fabrication of polydopamine-functionalized attapulgite nanofibers as eco-friendly adsorbents for uranium adsorption

255th National Meeting (2018)

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