Amidoxime-based hollow gear polyethylene fibers for rapid and efficient capture of uranyl carbonate from aqueous solutions possessing high fluoride tolerance

The amidoxime(AO)-based polyethylene (PE) nonwoven fabric and round fiber usually present slow sorption rate of uranium (U(VI)). Herein, a kind of AO-based hollow gear PE fiber was fabricated by radiation grafting of acrylonitrile and methacrylic acid. Results showed that the equilibrium sorption time of AO-based hollow gear PE fiber was merely one-third of AO-based round fiber, and one-sixth of AO-based nonwoven fabric, respectively. The U(VI) sorption behavior obeyed the models of pseudo-second-order and Freundlich isotherm. The U(VI) uptake amount at equilibrium was 151.7 mg/g. The remaining U(VI) concentration was effectively reduced from 40.0 mg/L to 16.0 μg/L.