Surfactant-assisted adsorption of uranyl ions in aqueous solution on TiO2/polythiophene nanocomposite

In this work, hexadecyltrimethylammonium-bromide (HTAB)-modified polythiophene (PTh)/TiO 2 nanocomposite (HTAB/PTh/TiO 2 ) was applied to remove uranyl ions (UO 2 2+ ). FT-IR, XRD, ζ potential, TGA, SEM, and XPS were utilized to obtain the chemical and physical properties of HTAB/PTh/TiO 2 . The effects of HTAB content, preparation temperature, and adsorption conditions on UO 2 2+ removal were investigated comprehensively. And the UO 2 2+ adsorption process on HTAB/PTh/TiO 2 was fitted to the Sips model with a saturated adsorption capacity of 234.74 mg/g, which was 6 times over TiO 2 . The results suggested that the surfactant of HTAB can significantly improve the adsorption ability of TiO 2 for UO 2 2+ ions. This work provides a strategy of surfactant modification for enhancing the separation and recovery ability of adsorbent toward UO 2 2+ in the radioactive wastewater.