A new hydrothermal cross-linking ion-imprinted chitosan for high-efficiency uranium removal

A new hydrothermal cross-linking ion-imprinted chitosan (ion-imprinted-HCC) was synthesized via an easy one-step hydrothermal cross-linking and ion-imprinted technique. The prepared ion-imprinted-HCC was characterized by SEM and FT-IR. Batch studies were carried out to determine the influence of experimental conditions. The maximum adsorption capacity (408.2 mg/g) was obtained at 298.15 K, pH = 7.0, C-0 = 50 mg/L, and t = 180 min. The selectivity studies indicated that the ion-imprinted-HCC had high selectivity adsorption for U(VI) ions in the presence of competing ions. Furthermore, ion-imprinted-HCC could be regenerated and reused by using 0.1 mol/L HCl as the elution.