Carboxylated UiO-66 Tailored for U(VI) and Eu(III) Trapping: From Batch Adsorption to Dynamic Column Separation

U(VI) and Eu(III), as representative elements of the hexavalent actinide and trivalent lanthanides (always as a chemical analogue for trivalent actinide), respectively, have attracted more and more attentions due to the widespread use of nuclear energy. Much effort has been focused on developing versatile materials for their uptake from aqueous solution. For the first time, we report here UiO-66 and its mono- (UiO-66-COOH) and di-carboxyl (UiO-66-2COOH) functional derivatives as robust adsorbents for efficient U(VI) and Eu(III) removal. It is found that the introduction of carboxyl groups greatly reduces the surface charge of UiO-66, thus guaranteeing excellent adsorption capacity at low pH. At pH = 3, for example, the adsorption capacity of UiO-66-2COOH for U(VI) and Eu(III) is more than 100 and 60 mg/g, respectively, while almost no adsorption occurs for pristine UiO-66. At pH = 4, both UiO-66-COOH and UiO-66-2COOH show high performance on U(VI) and Eu(III) removal. UiO-66-COOH has adsorption capacities of 80 and 43 mg/g for U(VI) and Eu(III), respectively, while the values for UiO-66-2COOH reach 150 and 80 mg/g, respectively. Also, all these materials achieve adsorption equilibrium within 100 min. More importantly, combining the needs of practical applications and the characteristics of high stability, high porosity, and excellent adsorption performance of UiO-66-2COOH, dynamic adsorption column experiments were successfully conducted; ∼99% U(VI)/Eu(III) can be efficiently adsorbed, and >90% adsorbed U(VI)/Eu(III) can be re-collected with dilute nitric acid solution, even after four adsorption–desorption cycles. The findings of this work demonstrate the application potential of metal–organic framework materials to remove radionuclides from environmental samples or nuclear waste liquids.