Magnetic alginate supported potassium manganese ferrocyanide for the recovery of uranium from acidic wastewater

Tingting Li; Fang Wang; Liangshu Xia

doi:10.1515/ract-2023-0257

Article

Magnetic alginate supported potassium manganese ferrocyanide for the recovery of uranium from acidic wastewater

Tingting Li , Fang Wang and Liangshu Xia

Published/Copyright: March 18, 2024

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From the journal Radiochimica Acta Volume 112 Issue 5

Abstract

With the rapid development of the atomic energy industry, the demand for nuclear fuel has risen, while the limited resources of uranium mines make it difficult to meet the needs of the future development of nuclear energy. Expanding sources of uranium acquisition is necessary, and the enrichment and recovery of precious uranium from uranium-containing wastewater is invaluable. By synthesizing alginate supported potassium manganese ferrocyanide nanocomposites with magnetic response (KMnFC/MA/Fe₃O₄), the high efficiency adsorption and separation of uranium in acidic uranium-containing wastewater can be realized conveniently and quickly. The magnetic composite was characterized by a variety of technical means, and the adsorption behavior of the magnetic material on uranium was studied by static adsorption experiments under different environmental conditions. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm of uranium by KMnFC/MA/Fe₃O₄ were studied by using some common linear adsorption models. The results show that the adsorption rate of KMnFC/MA/Fe₃O₄ on uranium is fast, and the adsorption equilibrium can be reached within 90 min. The adsorption process conforms to a pseudo-secondary kinetic model and is dominated by chemisorption. The adsorption of uranium by KMnFC/MA/Fe₃O₄ magnetic material is single molecular layer adsorption, and the maximum adsorption capacity is 425.5 mg g⁻¹ at 35 °C. KMnFC/MA/Fe₃O₄ is a promising adsorbent in the field of acidic low-concentration uranium wastewater treatment because of its good effect on the treatment of low concentration uranium wastewater, the concentration of uranium in the wastewater reaches the emission standard after treatment and it is easy to be separated magnetically after adsorption.

Keywords: uranium; adsorption; ferrocyanide; kinetics; isotherm

Corresponding authors: Fang Wang, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China, E-mail: 87884259@qq.com; and Liangshu Xia, School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China, E-mail: 2000000476@usc.edu.cn

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback. We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22176083) and the Excellent Youth Projects of Education Department of Hunan Province, China (23B0407 and 23B0428). The authors gratefully acknowledge the researchers at the Shiyanjia Lab (www.shiyanjia.com) for their support of TEM analysis.

Research ethics: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.
Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (22176083) and the Excellet Youth Projects of Education Department of Hunan Province, China (23B0407 and 23B0428).
Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Received: 2023-11-20

Accepted: 2024-03-02

Published Online: 2024-03-18

Published in Print: 2024-05-27

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2023-0257

Keywords for this article

uranium; adsorption; ferrocyanide; kinetics; isotherm