Ma Chunxin, Gao Jinxiang, Wang Dong, Yuan Yihui, Wen Jun, Yan Bingjie, Zhao Shilei, Zhao Xuemei, Sun Ye, Wang Xiaolin, Wang Ning
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resources Utilization in South China Sea Hainan University Haikou 570228 P. R. China.
Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry China Academy of Engineering Physics Mianyang 621900 P. R. China.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2019 Apr 4;6(13):1900085. doi: 10.1002/advs.201900085. eCollection 2019 Jul 3.
The uranium level in seawater is ≈1000 times as high as terrestrial ores and can provide potential near-infinite fuel for the nuclear energy industry. However, it is still a significant challenge to develop high-efficiency and low-cost adsorbents for massively extracting uranium from seawater. Herein, a simple and fast method through low-energy consumption sunlight polymerization to direct fabrication of a poly(amidoxime) (PAO) hydrogel membrane, which exhibits high uranium adsorption capacity, is reported. This PAO hydrogel owns semi-interpenetrating structure and a hydrophilic poly(acrylamide) 3D network of hydrogel which can disperse and fix PAOs well. As a result, the amidoxime groups of PAOs exhibit an outstanding uranium adsorption efficiency (718 ± 16.6 and 1279 ± 14.5 mg g of / in 8 and 32 ppm uranium-spiked seawater, respectively) among reported hydrogel-based adsorbents. Most importantly, U-uptake capacity of this hydrogel can achieve 4.87 ± 0.38 mg g of / just after four weeks within natural seawater. Furthermore, this hydrogel can be massively produced through low-energy consumption and environmentally-friendly sunlight polymerization. This work will provide a high-efficiency and low-cost adsorbent for massive uranium extraction from seawater.
海水中的铀含量比陆地矿石高约1000倍，可为核能工业提供近乎无限的潜在燃料。然而，开发用于从海水中大量提取铀的高效低成本吸附剂仍然是一项重大挑战。在此，报道了一种通过低能耗阳光聚合直接制备聚偕胺肟（PAO）水凝胶膜的简单快速方法，该水凝胶膜具有高铀吸附容量。这种PAO水凝胶具有半互穿结构和一个能很好地分散和固定PAO的亲水性聚丙烯酰胺水凝胶三维网络。因此，在已报道的水凝胶基吸附剂中，PAO的偕胺肟基团表现出出色的铀吸附效率（在铀浓度为8 ppm和32 ppm的加标海水中，分别为718±16.6和1279±14.5 mg g⁻¹）。最重要的是，这种水凝胶在天然海水中仅四周后铀摄取量就能达到4.87±0.38 mg g⁻¹。此外，这种水凝胶可以通过低能耗且环保的阳光聚合大量生产。这项工作将为从海水中大量提取铀提供一种高效低成本的吸附剂。
