US EPA

1423606 

Journal Article 

Chemical enrichment and separation of uranyl ions in aqueous media using novel polyurethane foam chemically grafted with different basic dyestuff sorbents 

El-Shahat, MF; Moawed, EA; Farag, AB 

2007 

1 

Talanta
ISSN: 0039-9140
EISSN: 1873-3573 

71 

1 

236-241 

English 

19071294 

10.1016/j.talanta.2006.03.044 

The new type of the grafted polyurethane foam sorbents were prepared by coupling polyether polyol, toluene diisocyanate and basic dyestuff (Methylene blue, Rhodamine B and Brilliant green). The Me.B-PUF, Rh.B-PUF and Br.G-PUF were characterized using UV/vis, IR and TGA. The adsorption properties and chromatographic behaviour of these new adsorbents for preconcentration and separation of uranium(VI) ions at low concentrations from aqueous thiocyanate media were investigated by a batch process. The maximum sorption of U(VI) was in the pH ranges 1-4. The kinetics of sorption of the U(VI) by the Grafted-PUF were found to be fast with half life of sorption (t(1/2)) in 2.43min. The average sorption capacity of different sorbents 0.124meqg(-1) for uranyl ions, enrichment factors approximately 40 and the recovery 98-100% were achieved (R.S.D. approximately 0.73%). The basic dyestuff Grafted-PUF could be used many times without decreasing their capacities significantly. The value of the Gibbs free energy (DeltaG) for the sorbents is -7.3kJmol(-1), which reflects the spontaneous nature of sorption process. The sorption mechanism of the metal ion onto Grafted-PUF was also discussed.