New and simple synthetic strategy for two‐dimensional ultra‐microporous aromatic framework for selective uranium capture in liquid

Abstract Uranium is a key element to improve nuclear energy demands, and thereby the extraction of uranium from seawater is a strategic way to address uranium sustainability. Herein, a novel two‐dimensional porous aromatic framework (AO‐PAF), which possesses an ultra‐microporous architecture with an ordered structure, excellent stability and selectivity of uranium extraction from a liquid phase. AO‐PAF shows excellent uranium adsorption capacities of 637 (mg/g) and 3.22 (mg/g) in simulated and natural seawater attributable to the selective uranium coordinating groups on highly accessible pores on the walls of open channels. In addition, benefiting from the super‐hydrophilicity due to the presence of amidoxime groups attributes high selectivity and ultrafast kinetics with an uptake rate of 0.43 ± 0.03 (mg/g·day) and allowing half‐saturation within 1.35 ± 0.09 days. This strategy demonstrates the potential of PAF not only recovery of uranium and can be extended for other applications by sensible planning of target ligands.