Preparation of cellulose@amidoxime by plasma-induced grafting technology and its potential application for uranium extraction

Abstract

The efficient enrichment of uranium from the seawater is urgently required for the long-term development of nuclear energy. Here, a plasma-light-amidoxime-cellulose (PLAOC) adsorbent formed by introducing functional groups onto cellulose has been designed for the environmental friendliness of amidoxime materials. In the presence of Na2CO3, this composite exhibited excellent uranium enrichment performance up to 101.15 mg·g−1 at 303 K and pH 6.0. The adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models. The results indicated that U(VI) adsorption on PLAOC could depend on the chelation of oxy-nitrogen elements in the amidoxime group. Furthermore, PLAOC showed good adsorption selectivity. Most importantly, the enrichment of uranium on PLAOC was excellent in the simulated seawater. These findings demonstrate that employing plasma technology to prepare uranium-rich adsorbents can be a promising and viable approach.