Preparation of bundle-shaped fiber adsorbents having amidoxime groups and their ability to adsorb uranium from seawater

We developed a new (novel) bundle-shaped fiber adsorbent with amidoxime groups (AO-bundles) that is effective for recovering uranium from seawater. The procedures for preparing AO-bundles are as follows: The bundles of polyacrylonitrile fibers (AN-bundle), that have 30 mm in diameter and 60 mm in length, were made mechanically with plastic belts (CV-70): AO-bundles were prepared by treating An-bundles successively with 1 M hydroxylamine in methanol and with 1 M NaOH solution. AO-bundles treated with 1 M hydroxylamine for 8 h and with 1 M NaOH solution for about 10 h showed the maximum adsorption rate and an adsorption ability of 2.0 mg/g in 60 days in seawater. Also, the AO-bundle showed high physical stability and its permeability coefficient of seawater in the AO-bundle bed was 3.1x10-5 cm2. These results show that AO-bundles are a promising adsorbent for the recovery of uranium in seawater. (author)