Recovery of uranium using epoxy-modified phosphorus pentasulfide as an efficient adsorbent for uranium extraction from aquatic environments.

Epoxy-modified phosphorus pentasulfide (EPMPS) formulation was developed for the supported recovery of uranium from aquatic environments. The selected components of the prepared formulation were tailored to produce a rigid foamed polymeric material that was rich in phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen atoms, thus increasing chelating bonding possibilities with uranium. FT-IR and SEM were applied to physically characterize the resulting sorbent. At an equilibrium time of 30 min, the phase ratio S/L of 1 g L, pH 3 and initial uranium concentration of 50 mg L yielded an adsorption efficiency for uranium of 90%. An 85% elution of uranium from loaded EPMPS was achieved with 1 h shaking and a phase ratio (S/A) of 0.5 g/25 mL of 0.1 M CHCOONa. Sorption isotherm designs were exploited to analyze the findings from the experiments. Uranium had an adsorption capability of about 78.7 mg g. According to the results of uranium adsorption, when applied to an actual sample, EPMPS is a suitable substrate for uranium adsorption from nitrate media.