Self-assembled fabrication of robust and durable graphene-based composite aerogel for selective uranium capture

This work successfully prepared a graphene/carboxymethyl cellulose/poly(amidoxime) aerogel named GCPA for uranium capture. Excitingly, GCPA exhibits superb mechanical properties (320 kPa). Additionally, the adsorption rate of GCPA remained above 90% even after 6 adsorption–desorption cycles. The results of the adsorption mechanism analysis show that GCPA adsorbed uranium mainly through electrostatic attraction, intraparticle diffusion, and coordination. It is worth mentioning that GCPA maintains good adsorption capacity for uranium in weakly alkaline environments. And GCPA has exceptional selectivity for uranium even in the presence of competing ions. Results show that GCPA is expected to be utilized in uranium extraction from natural seawater.