Highly Efficient Removal of Uranium from an Aqueous Solution by a Novel Phosphonic Acid-Functionalized Magnetic Microsphere Adsorbent

Abstract

The development of adsorption materials which can efficiently isolate and enrich uranium is of great scientific significance to sustainable development and environmental protection. In this work, a novel phosphonic acid-functionalized magnetic microsphere adsorbent Fe3O4/P (GMA-MBA)-PO4 was developed by functionalized Fe3O4/P (GMA-MBA) prepared by distill-precipitation polymerization with O-phosphoethanolamine. The adsorption process was endothermic, spontaneous and kinetically followed the pseudo second-order model. The maximum uranium adsorption capacity obtained from the Langmuir model was 333.33 mg g−1 at 298 K. In addition, the adsorbent also had good acid resistance and superparamagnetic properties, which could be quickly separated by a magnetic field. XPS analysis showed that the adsorption of adsorbent mainly depended on the complexation of phosphonic acid group with uranium. This work offers a promising candidate for the application of magnetic adsorbents in the field of uranium separation and enrichment.