Enhancement of the heterogeneous adsorption and incorporation of uranium caused by the intercalation of β-cyclodextrin into the green rust.

The influence of intercalated anions on the structure and composition of green rusts supplies a theoretical possibility for the investigation of the structural modification of Fe/Fe (oxyhydr)oxide materials. β-Cyclodextrin was intercalated into the mixed-valent iron-based hydroxide layers to synthesize new green rust materials (β-CD GRs), pursuing high-capacity uranium (U) sorption. The molar ratios of Fe to Fe and the molar ratios of β-CD GR to Fe + Fe had a significant effect on the synthesis of β-CD GRs. The synthesis process was further optimized by the quadric predictor and desirability function in a central composite design in combination. Both strong acidity and alkalinity were harmful to the adsorption of β-CD GRs towards U. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model were appropriate in fitting the whole adsorption process. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of β-CD GRs was 2548.61 mg/g. The presence of mimic groundwater constituents explicitly deteriorated the interaction between β-CD GR and U species. Nanoscale nodules and particles were formed on the β-CD GR after the adsorption experiments. The peaks at 1159 and 609 cm vanished with the band at 1103 cm being left-shifted to 1117 cm in the FTIR spectra of β-CD GR during the heterogeneous process. The intercalation of β-CD brought obvious enhancement of U species sorption to the GR material, which was combinedly driven by several reaction pathways and different from the unmodified GRs.