Development of adsorptive membrane for preconcentration and separation of uranium from environmental samples

Full text: With the development of nuclear power plants, new uranium resources other than uranium ores have been explored in order to meet the energy demand for the near future. Hence identifying, designing and implementing new technologies for preconcentration and separation of uranium in complex matrices are necessary in terms of economic consideration and environmental protection. Development of polymeric sorbents for the purpose of complexation with metal ions is the most effective method for the preconcentration of uranium due to their high ion selectivity and handling ease. In the present work, cross-linked adsorptive membranes containing Itaconic acid (ICA), Acrylamide (AM), Penta erythritol tetra acrylate (PETA) and α, α-Dimethyl- α-phenyl aceto phenone (DMPA) were prepared by UV-initiated bulk polymerization. The sorption ability of these membranes towards uranyl ion was thoroughly examined using radiotracers and other techniques. The studies on uptake selectivity of U(VI) in the membrane in presence of other cations like Th(IV), V(IV), Eu(III), Fe(III), Cu(II), Hg(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II) indicated that only Hg(II) sorbed with high efficiency in ICA+AM membrane. It was observed that desorption of Hg(II) is possible by EDTA disodium salt without the loss of U(VI) from the membrane sample. By EDXRF analysis it was clear that high desorption of U(VI) is possible with 0.5 mol L-1 Na2CO3. The uranyl ion sorption studies were also carried out using ICP-OES. The developed adsorptive membrane has been successfully applied for the determination of uranium from seawater and polluted soil samples