Powder-based adsorbents having high adsorption capacities for recovering dissolved metals and methods thereof [electronic resource].
Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 2016. Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy
A powder-based adsorbent and a related method of manufacture are provided. The powder-based adsorbent includes polymer powder with grafted side chains and an increased surface area per unit weight to increase the adsorption of dissolved metals, for example uranium, from aqueous solutions. A method for forming the powder-based adsorbent includes irradiating polymer powder, grafting with polymerizable reactive monomers, reacting with hydroxylamine, and conditioning with an alkaline solution. Powder-based adsorbents formed according to the present method demonstrated a significantly improved uranium adsorption capacity per unit weight over existing adsorbents.