Preparation of amidoximated polyethylene nonwoven fabric and its uranium adsorption performance

Abstract

A novel amidoximated polyethylene nonwoven fabric (PE-g-AO) was successfully prepared by electron beam pre-irradiation grafting with glycidyl methacrylate, followed by reaction induced of ethylenediamine and maleic anhydride, AIBN-initiated polymerization of acrylonitrile, and finally, amidoximation. The chemical structure and morphology of the PE nonwoven fabric before and after modification were characterized by total reflection infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Adsorption experiment results showed that the adsorption capacity of PE-g-AO for uranium is 71.92 mg/g (U(VI): 20 mg/L; NaF: 2.0 g/L; sorbent dosage: 0.2 g/L; adsorption time: 216 h). When the dosage of adsorbent is 1.0 g/L, the uranyl ions in the solution are basically adsorbed, and the residual uranium concentration is 0.04 mg/L, which meets the national emission standard. Furthermore, the material has a good adsorption selectivity for uranium in a solution containing UO22+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and Na+ ions.

Keywords

• polyethylene nonwoven fabric
• radiation grafting
• uranyl ions
• adsorption