A New Type of Amidoxime-Group-Containing Adsorbent for the Recovery of Uranium from Seawater. III. Recycle Use of Adsorbent

An amidoxime-group-containing adsorbent for recovering uranium from seawater was made by radiation-induced graft polymerization of acrylonitrile onto polymeric fiber, followed by amidoximation. Uranium adsorption of the adsorbent contacted with seawater in a column increased with the increase in flow rate, then leveled off. The relationship between uranium adsorption in a batch process and the ratio of the amount of seawater to that of adsorbent was found to be effective in evaluating adsorbent contacted with any amount of seawater. The conditioning of the adsorbent with an alkaline solution at higher temperature (80°C) after the acid desorption recovered the adsorption ability to the original level. This made it possible to apply the adsorbent to recycle use. On the other hand, the adsorbent conditioned at room temperature or that without conditioning lost adsorption ability during recycle use. The increase in water uptake was observed as one of the physical changes produced during recycle use of the alkaline-conditioned adsorbent, while the decrease in water uptake was observed with the unconditioned adsorbent. The IR spectra of the adsorbent showed a probability of reactions of amidoxime groups with acid and alkaline solutions, which can explain the change in uranium adsorption during the adsorption-desorption cycle.