Adsorptive removal of U(VI) from aqueous solution by hydrothermal carbon spheres with phosphate group

The phosphorylated hydrothermal carbon spheres (HCS-PO4) were developed by functionalizing hydrothermal carbon spheres (HCS) with o-phosphoethanolamine, and the structure and textural property were characterized by SEM and FT-IR. The parameters that affect the uranium(VI) sorption, such as solution pH, initial U(VI) concentration, contact time, and temperature, had been investigated. The HCS-PO4 showed the highest uranium sorption capacity at initial pH 6.0 and contact time of 120 min. The adsorption kinetics was better described by the pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption process could be well defined by the Langmuir isotherm and the maximum monolayer adsorption capacity increased from 80.00 to 434.78 mg/g after phosphorylation. The thermodynamic parameters, ∆G° (298 K), ∆H° and ∆S°, demonstrated shown that the sorption process of U(VI) onto HCS-PO4 was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The spent HCS-PO4 could be effectively regenerated by 0.1 mol/L EDTA solution for the removal and recovery of U(VI) and reused for ten cycles at least. Selective adsorption studies showed that the HCS-PO4 could selectively remove U(VI), and the selectivity coefficients of HCS in the presence of co-existing ions, Mg(II), Na(I), Zn(II), Mn(II),Co(II), Ni(II), Sr(II), Cs(I) and Hg(II) improved after functionalization.