Rational Synthesis of Polyamidoxime/Polydopamine-Decorated Graphene Oxide Composites for Efficient Uranium(VI) Removal from Mine Radioactive Wastewater

Efficient removal of U(VI) from mine radioactive wastewater is important for environmental remediation and radiation protection. In this work, a new series of polyamidoxime/polydopamine-decorated graphene oxide (GO/PDA/PAO) composites were obtained by one-pot synthesis and used for the removal of U(VI) from mine radioactive wastewater. The as-synthesized GO/PDA/PAO composites (GO/PDA/PAO-0.2, GO/PDA/PAO-0.5, and GO/PDA/PAO-1) were examined by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effects of pH, ionic strength, contact time, initial U(VI) concentration, and temperature on the adsorption behavior of U(VI) by GO/PDA/PAO were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity of GO/PDA/PAO-0.2 was 502.5 mg/g at pH 6.0 and 298 K. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms can be well illustrated by the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and Langmuir isotherm model. The thermodynamic study indicated that the removal of U(VI) by GO/PDA/PAO-0.2 was an endothermic and spontaneous process. The interactions between GO/PDA/PAO-0.2 and U(VI) were explained based on the FT-IR and XPS analyses. Furthermore, GO/PDA/PAO was applied for U(VI) removal from mine radioactive wastewater. The concentration of U(VI) in the wastewater can be reduced to 7.28 μg/L, which is below the allowable uranium concentration for drinking water stipulated in the standard by the World Health Organization (30 μg/L).