Optimization of molar content of amidoxime and acrylic acid in UHMWPE fibers for improvement of seawater uranium adsorption capacity

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene(UHMWPE) fibrous adsorbents with different molar content of amidoxime (M AO) and acrylic acid(M AA) were prepared by graft polymerization of acrylonitrile(AN) and acrylic acid(AA), followed by amidoximation. Uranium adsorption experiments in both artificial and natural seawater were carried out to investigate the effect of M AO and M AA on the uranium adsorption capacity of UHMWPE fibrous adsorbents. Adsorption results showed that the UHMWPE fibrous adsorbent with M AO = 4.27 and M AA = 4.64 mmol/g-ads exhibited better uranium adsorption capacity in both artificial (7.01 mg-U/g-ads) and natural (0.77 mg-U/g-ads) seawater.