We have recently demonstrated that natural biopolymers such as chitin can be electrospun from ionic liquid solution and developed a setup for multi-needle electrospinning of chitin which allows the scale-up of production of nanofibrous chitin mats with controllable and high surface areas. The chitin fibers contain acetylamine functionalities on the surface of the fibers which can be deacetylated and substituted with specific extracting ligands. In our proof of concept, the chitin fiber surfaces were deacetylated using aqueous NaOH and amidoxime ligands were appended to allow the selective sorption of uranium from seawater. These tailor-made sorbents provide both the physical properties of chitin and the functional properties of chitosan, resulting in an advanced material from a biorenewable resource with reduced chemical input. The extracting moiety can be easily changed for selective extraction of a variety of metal ions from aqueous media. While, a sustainable and viable sorbent technology for extraction of uranium from seawater is far from being commercialized, under a Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research grant, we have proven the general feasibility of the concept. This presentation will discuss the science behind the technology and the progress toward commercial scale operations.

Using ionic liquids to take advantage of the many facets of chitin: Tailor-made high surface area nanofibrous sorbent mats for selective separations of metal ions

256th National Meeting (2018)

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