Preparation of novel porous Al2O3-SiO2 nanocomposites via solution-freeze-drying-calcination method for the efficient removal of uranium in solution.

In this work, the efficient extraction of uranium in solution using Al2O3-SiO2-T was reported. Kinetics and isotherm models indicated that the removal process of uranium onAl2O3-SiO2-T accorded with pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, which showed that the adsorption process was a uniform mono-layer chemical behavior. The maximum adsorption capacity of Al2O3-SiO2-T reached 738.7 mg g-1, which was higher than AlNaO6Si2 (349.8 mg g-1) and Al2O3-SiO2-NT (453.1 mg g-1), indicating that the addition of template could effectively improve the adsorption performance of Al2O3-SiO2 to uranium. Even after five cycles of adsorption-desorption, the removal percentage of uranium on Al2O3-SiO2-T remained 96%. Besides, the extraction efficiency of uranium on Al2O3-SiO2-T was 72.5% in simulated seawater, which suggested that the Al2O3-SiO2-T was expected to be used for uranium extraction from seawater. Further, the interaction mechanism between Al2O3-SiO2-T and uranium species was studied. The results showed that the electrostatic interaction and complexation played key roles in the adsorption process of Al2O3-SiO2-T to uranium.