Radiation synthesis of amidoxime functional EVOH/MXene nanofiber film for uranium extraction from seawater and desalination

The simultaneous realization of multifunctionalization and high efficiency of seawater-uranium extraction materials are essential; however, this is extremely challenging. In this work, a novel multifunctional hybrid nanofiber film (NF) with excellent photothermal conversion properties based on ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH), MXene and amidoxime (AO), named EVOH/MXene-g-AO, is firstly prepared by combining electrospinning with radiation technique. The EVOH/MXene-g-AO film exhibits highly efficient photothermal conversion properties, with a fast water evaporation rate (1.67 kg m-2h- 1) under 1 solar irradiation. Moreover, this property makes the EVOH/MXene-g-AO film conducive to efficient uranium extraction under sunlight, and enables the adsorption capacity of the EVOH/MXene-g-AO film in simulated seawater to be 13.06 mg g-1 in 60 days, which is about 1.5 times higher compared to the light-free environment. In addition, after eight adsorptionregeneration cycles, the reuse rate of EVOH/MXene-g-AO is as high as 87.4 %. More importantly, the EVOH/ MXene-g-AO film exhibits good antibacterial ability, thus the well-designed film has a long service life in practical applications. Finally, EVOH/MXene-g-AO film is successfully applied for the efficient uranium extraction from seawater (UES) and seawater of desalination. This work provides a new strategy for marine uranium extraction and freshwater resource exploitation.