Hydrothermal synthesis of novel activated carbon–nickel oxide nanocomposites for uranium adsorption

The adsorption of uranium on activated carbon–nickel oxide (AC-NiO) nano-composites was investigated using the CCD method. AC was synthesized from degreased waste canola sediments by chemical activation method. Nickel oxide and AC-NiO nanocomposites were synthesized individually by hydrothermal technique. The average particle size of nano-compposite adsorbent was found to be 17.64 ± 1.51 nm. Uranium adsorption capacity was calculated as 136.92 ± 4.7 mg g−1. Using the Langmuir isotherm, the total number of binding sites and adsorption energy were 131.58 mg g−1 and 0.25 L mg−1, respectively. The system was spontaneous, unfavorable at high temperatures and physisorption dominated process.