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

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 (H 3 IMDC) was introduced onto the surface of hemp fibers (HF) by two-step method to prepare a novel bio-based polymeric material HF-H 3 IMDC 3 adsorbent containing imidazole nitrogen and carboxyl groups. The introduction of H 3 IMDC 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-H 3 IMDC 3 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-H 3 IMDC 3 exhibited good selectivity and reusability. More importantly, the HF-H 3 IMDC 3 also presented excellent adsorption performance in natural seawater, indicating that HF-H 3 IMDC 3 has a great prospect for the extraction of U(VI) from seawater.