Rapid recovery of uranium with magnetic-single-molecular amidoxime adsorbent

Highly efficient treatment of uranium contamination is of great importance for the sustainable development of the environment. The recovery of uranium by adsorbents is a feasible strategy for treating uranium contamination. However, due to insufficient exposure of the contact interfaces, currently available adsorbents usually take extremely long time for uranium adsorption. Herein, a magnetic-single-molecular amidoxime adsorbent M−AO−Fc is fabricated for highly efficient recovery of uranium from nuclear wastewater by endowing the amidoximated cyanoferrocene with magnetism. The adsorbent M−AO−Fc shows a maximum uranium adsorption capacity of 510.60 mg/g in uranium solution. In an acidic simulated nuclear wastewater containing a large number of interfering ions, M−AO−Fc also shows a high uranium adsorption capacity of 84.31 mg/g within a short equilibrium time of 60 min. The full dispersion of M−AO−Fc and full exposure of functional groups are the critical reasons for the excellent uranium adsorption performance. Attributing to the magnetism of M−AO−Fc, this adsorbent can be efficiently recovered by magnetic recovery and shows high reusability. This study proves that the magnetic-single-molecule would be a promising adsorbent for uranium recovery and opens up a new direction for designing a uranium adsorbent.