Functional fibrous materials-based adsorbents for uranium adsorption and environmental remediation

Uranium adsorption and recovery becomes more and more important with the rapid growth of the nuclear industry. Compared with the typical uranium adsorbents such as inorganic materials, carbon-based materials, porous organic framework, and traditional resin, fibrous polymer materials show the advantages of high adsorption capacity, fast adsorption kinetics, good selectivity, favorable tolerability and outstanding reusability because of their unique one-dimensional structure, excellent mechanical performance and rational surface functionality. This review is mainly focused on the fibrous polymer materials-based adsorbents for the highly efficient adsorption and recovery of uranium. The architecture together with the regulation of the surface functional groups for uranium adsorption is discussed. The strategies to enhance the adsorption performance including the size control, multi-level functionality and immobilization by inorganic materials are highlighted. Additionally, the adsorption mechanism has also been discussed. Finally, the suggestions and future research perspective are provided for better design of new types of fibrous polymeric adsorbents.