Quaternization of Composite Algal/PEI Beads for Enhanced Uranium Sorption—Application to Ore Acidic Leachate

Abstract

The necessity to recover uranium from dilute solutions (for environmental/safety and resource management) is driving research towards developing new sorbents. This study focuses on the enhancement of U(VI) sorption properties of composite algal/Polyethylenimine beads through the quaternization of the support (by reaction with glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride). The sorbent is fully characterized by FTIR, XPS for confirming the contribution of protonated amine and quaternary ammonium groups on U(VI) binding (with possible contribution of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, depending on the pH). The sorption properties are investigated in batch with reference to pH effect (optimum value: pH 4), uptake kinetics (equilibrium: 40 min) and sorption isotherms (maximum sorption capacity: 0.86 mmol U g−1). Metal desorption (with 0.5 M NaCl/0.5 M HCl) is highly efficient and the sorbent can be reused for five cycles with limited decrease in performance. The sorbent is successfully applied to the selective recovery of U(VI) from acidic leachate of uranium ore, after pre-treatment (cementation of copper, precipitation of rare earth elements with oxalate, and precipitation of iron). A pure yellow cake is obtained after precipitation of the eluate.

Efficient Recovery of Rare Earth Elements (Pr(III) and Tm(III)) From Mining Residues Using a New Phosphorylated Hydrogel (Algal Biomass/PEI)

“…The kinetic profiles can be described by the PFORE. This result was consistent with the conclusions raised for other deriva-tives of APEI (quaternized, sulfonated, amidoximated) in the sorption of different metal ions [44][45][46]62,63]. Figure 7 shows the sorption isotherms for Pr(III) and Tm(III) using APEI and P2-APEI sorbents at pH 0 5.…”

Green Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) Using Arthrospira platensis (Class: Cyanophyceae) and Evaluation of their Biomedical Activities

“…C 1s ( Figure 6 B) was split into five peaks at 284.48, 285.75, 287.9, 287.05, and 288.9 eV for C(H, C), C–N, C–O, C=O, and C–O–C, respectively [ 52 , 53 ], verifying the hydrocarbon composition produced in the medium. N 1s was deconvoluting into two peaks with low intensities at 398.2 and 399.37 eV for N (C, H) and N tert , respectively [ 53 , 54 ].…”

Phosphorylation of Guar Gum/Magnetite/Chitosan Nanocomposites for Uranium (VI) Sorption and Antibacterial Applications

“…(a) Amidoxime groups immobilized on synthetic resins [12][13][14], metal-organic frameworks [15], or bio-based composites [16,17] (b) Sulfonic acid-bearing materials [18][19][20], (c) Quaternary ammonium-based sorbents [21][22][23], (d) Iminodiacetic acid-bearing groups [24].…”