High efficiency biosorption of Uranium (VI) ions from solution by using hemp fibers functionalized with imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic

Abstract The development of nuclear energy requires the consumption of large amounts of uranium resources, and the uranium in seawater is very abundant. Therefore, it is very important to collection of uranium from seawater using efficient and convenient methods. In this work, imidazole-4, 5-dicarboxylic acid (H3IMDC) was introduced onto the surface of hemp fibers (HF) by two-step method to prepare a novel bio-based polymeric material HF-H3IMDC3 adsorbent containing imidazole nitrogen and carboxyl groups. The introduction of H3IMDC could improve the activity sites and hydrophilicity of the HF, which significantly increased the adsorption capacity of uranium. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of HF-H3IMDC3 is 469.48 mg/g at pH 7.0 and 313 K. Adsorption process was more suitable for the pseudo-second order model. Moreover, HF-H3IMDC3 exhibited good selectivity and reusability. More importantly, the HF-H3IMDC3 also presented excellent adsorption performance in natural seawater, indicating that HF-H3IMDC3 has a great prospect for the extraction of U(VI) from seawater.