Modified Tubular Carbon Nanofibers for Adsorption of Uranium(VI) from Water

Carbon nanomaterials with a hollow tubular nanofiber structure is of great interest for uranium­(VI) adsorption from water. Their unique structure not only exposes a good number of functional groups and high surface area but also shows quick ion transport capacity. However, finding a simple method to prepare a new carbon structure is challenging. Herein, a new tubular hyper-cross-linked polymer is fabricated in a single pot using α,α′-dichloro-p-xylene (DCX) as a monomer. After carbonization, hollow tubular nanofibers (HTnFs) are obtained. Further, HTnFs are modified with carboxylic (COOH) and sulfonic­(SO3H) groups to obtain HTnF-SO3H and HTnF-COOH designed for ultrafast and high uranium­(VI) adsorption from water. From the batch studies, uranium­(VI) adsorption efficiencies of two adsorbents are greater than 90 ± 0.5% under seawater conditions over a short period of 10 min. The accurate data fitting was performed by using different models and the adsorption results are in agreement with the Langmuir model. The adsorption results showing the maximum adsorption capacities of HTnF-COOH and HTnF-SO3H are 1928.59 and 1827.57 mg/g. The easy preparation, highest uranium­(VI) adsorption, and regeneration properties suggest that these adsorbents act as good uranium­(VI) adsorbents from large-scale water.