High efficient and selective removal of U(VI) from lanthanides by phenanthroline diamide functionalized carbon doped boron nitride

Separating and recovering uranium (U(VI)) efficiently from lanthanides is crucial for mitigating the radioactive hazard generated by hydrometallurgical residual solutions of lanthanide minerals and ensuring the long-term sustainability of uranium resources. The present work exploited phenanthroline diamide functionalized porous carbon doped boron nitride (BCN-DAPhen) as an adsorbent, which displayed outstanding adsorption performance for the separation of U(VI) from lanthanides. The results of batch adsorption tests indicated that BCNDAPhen exhibited rapid adsorption kinetics and the adsorption process achieved equilibrium within 10 min. BCN-DAPhen also performed ultra-high maximum adsorption capacity that was calculated to be 2050.8 mg g-1 by fitting with the two-site Langmuir model. Theoretical calculation and experimental results of adsorption were combined to illustrate the adsorption mechanism as well, the results showed that two structures of DAPhen groups on BCN performed discrepant adsorption properties for U(VI). BCN-DAPhen retained excellent adsorption ability owing to the strong affinity of DAPhen groups with U(VI) even in the solution with high concentration of salt and acid. The selectivity coefficients of U(VI) toward various lanthanides were beyond 192.5 at a high nitric acid concentration of 5 mol L-1. This study suggested a general technique for the functionalization of porous BCN, which is expected to be useful in the treatment of residual solution in lanthanides hydrometallurgy.

Automated summary

This study developed a novel adsorbent (BCN-DAPhen) that exhibited outstanding adsorption performance for the efficient separation and recovery of uranium from lanthanides. The experimental results showed that BCN-DAPhen had rapid adsorption kinetics and ultra-high adsorption capacity. Furthermore, BCN-DAPhen retained excellent adsorption ability for U(VI) even in high salt and acid concentration solutions.