Parametric Studies on Radiation Grafting of Polymeric Sorbents for Recovery of Heavy Metals from Seawater

Uranium and vanadium are valuable trace metals in seawater. The economic viability of recovery of these metals depends on development of efficient sorbents. The radiation induced graft polymerization technique was adopted in this study to prepare metal chelate embedded polymers in sheet form in order to investigate the recovery the heavy metals from seawater, using different nonwoven substrate materials. In order to obtain more direct information on the grafting levels, the parametric studies to see the influence of cumulative dose, retention time in air, surrounding atmosphere, and reaction temperature on grafting yields were investigated using different electron beam energies. The grafted sorbents were verified by infrared spectroscopic measurements, and thermal properties were analyzed by scanning calorimetric methods. Metal sorption characteristics for uranium and vanadium were evaluated through in-field trials at seawaters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea along Indian coastal lines.