Performance and Mechanism of Uranium Adsorption from Seawater to Poly(dopamine)-Inspired Sorbents.
Developing facile and robust technologies for effective enrichment of uranium from seawater is of great significance for resource sustainability and environmental safety. By exploiting mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) chemistry, diverse types of PDA-functionalized sorbents including magnetic nanoparticle (MNP), ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC), and glass fiber carpet (GFC) were synthesized. The PDA functional layers with abundant catechol and amine/imine groups provided an excellent platform for binding to uranium. Due to the distinctive structure of PDA, the sorbents exhibited multistage kinetics which was simultaneously controlled by chemisorption and intralayer diffusion. Applying the diverse PDA-modified sorbents for enrichment of low concentration (parts per billion) uranium in laboratory-prepared solutions and unpurified seawater was fully evaluated under different scenarios: that is, by batch adsorption for MNP and OMC and by selective filtration for GFC. Moreover, high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic and extended X-ray absorption fine structure studies were performed for probing the underlying coordination mechanism between PDA and U(VI). The catechol hydroxyls of PDA were identified as the main bidentate ligands to coordinate U(VI) at the equatorial plane. This study assessed the potential of versatile PDA chemistry for development of efficient uranium sorbents and provided new insights into the interaction mechanism between PDA and uranium.
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Fengcheng
F
Wu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Ning
N
Pu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Gang
0000-0002-7066-940X
G
Ye
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Taoxiang
0000-0003-4690-3566
T
Sun
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Zhe
Z
Wang
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Yang
Y
Song
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Wenqing
W
Wang
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Xiaomei
X
Huo
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Yuexiang
0000-0003-2755-7733
Y
Lu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, and ‡Beijing Key Lab of Radioactive Waste Treatment, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Jing
J
Chen
D000327:Adsorption; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D004298:Dopamine; D012623:Seawater; D014501:Uranium / Q000737:chemistry*
D014501:Uranium; D002244:Carbon; D004298:Dopamine