Removal of uranium(VI) from simulated wastewater by a novel porous membrane based on crosslinked chitosan, UiO-66-NH2 and polyvinyl alcohol

The development of highly efficient adsorbent presents an enticing prospect for U(VI)-containing radioactive wastewater treatment. In this work, a novel porous cCS/PVA/UiO-66-NH2 membrane absorbent comprising of crosslinked chitosan (cCS), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and UiO-66-NH2 is designed and prepared. The adsorption capacity of porous cCS/PVA/UiO-66-NH2 membrane achieves 316.50 mg g−1 under an optimal condition. Furthermore, the porous cCS/PVA/UiO-66-NH2 membrane exhibits a high selectivity for U(VI) adsorption in simulated radioactive wastewater treatment. The possible mechanism of U(VI) adsorption onto porous cCS/PVA/UiO-66-NH2 membrane mainly includes surface complexation and cation exchange processes. In addition, the porous cCS/PVA/UiO-66-NH2 membrane also exhibits excellent cycling adsorption-‍desorption performance. All these results demonstrate that the porous cCS/PVA/UiO-‍66-NH2 membrane is a promising candidate for application in U(VI) removal from radioactive wastewater.