Bis-Catecholamide-Based Materials for Uranium Extraction

This work reports the synthesis of formo-phenolic resins containing four catecholamide (CAM) moieties with admixture of phenol, catechol or resorcinol. These chelating resins have been developed to selectively extract U(VI) from seawater. This media is a challenging environment due to a pH around 8.2 and a large excess of alkaline and earth-alkaline cations. From the various sorption experiments investigated, the results indicate that the synthesized material exhibit good sorbent properties for U(VI) with uptake capacity about 50 mg/g for the more promising resins with a pronounced selectivity for uranium even under saline conditions. Thermodynamic and kinetic adsorption data were determined for the best resin (Langmuir adsorption model and pseudo-second order model).

Automated summary

This work presents the synthesis of formo-phenolic resins containing CAM moieties combined with phenol, catechol or resorcinol. These chelating resins have been developed for selective extraction of U(VI) from seawater, which poses challenges due to its high pH and abundant alkaline and earth-alkaline cations. Results from sorption experiments show that the synthesized resins exhibit good sorbent properties for U(VI), with a maximum uptake capacity of about 50 mg/g and pronounced selectivity for uranium even in saline conditions. Thermodynamic and kinetic adsorption data were determined using Langmuir adsorption model and pseudo-second order model for the best resin.