Phosphorus functionalized carbon nitride for rapid adsorption of uranium from aqueous solution

In this work, a novel phosphorus functionalized carbon nitride (PCN) was designed and synthesized by a pyrolysis method for rapid adsorption of uranium. The optimized sample obtained at 600 °C (marked as PCN-600) exhibited the highest ability for uranium adsorption with efficiency of over 96% in only 1 min. The PCN-600 also exhibited high selectivity for uranium adsorption from simulated wastewater containing multiple interfering ions. The characterization results further revealed that the main adsorption mechanism of the uranium on PCN-600 is chemisorption. This work provides newly insight into adsorbent design for uranium removal from wastewater.