Foam-based adsorbents having high adsorption capacities for recovering dissolved metals and methods thereof
AssigneeUT-Battelle, LLC
InventorsChristopher J. Janke, Sheng Dai, Yatsandra Oyola
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Abstract
Foam-based adsorbents and a related method of manufacture are provided. The foam-based adsorbents include polymer foam with grafted side chains and an increased surface area per unit weight to increase the adsorption of dissolved metals, for example uranium, from aqueous solutions. A method for forming the foam-based adsorbents includes irradiating polymer foam, grafting with polymerizable reactive monomers, reacting with hydroxylamine, and conditioning with an alkaline solution. Foam-based adsorbents formed according to the present method demonstrated a significantly improved uranium adsorption capacity per unit weight over existing adsorbents.
Claims4
A method for forming a foam-based adsorbent for the recovery of metal ions from an aqueous solution, the method comprising:
- exposing a polymer foam to ionizing radiation and co-grafting polymerizable monomers containing nitrile and hydrophilic groups to form grafted side chains;
- reacting the nitrile groups in the grafted side chains with hydroxylamine to convert the nitrile groups into amidoxime groups;
- and
- conditioning the grafted polymer foam with an alkaline solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.