Polypropylene nonwoven fabric modified with oxime and guanidine for antibiofouling and highly selective uranium recovery from seawater

A novel adsorbent for antibiofouling and highly selective uranium recovery from seawater is developed in this work. Specifically, the polypropylene nonwoven fabric modified with oxime and guanidine was obtained by subsequent radiation-grafting, ring-opening and oximation reaction. The adsorbent demonstrates outstanding selectivity for uranium(VI) against other competing metal ions in real seawater. The antibacterial assay indicated the adsorbent has good antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. XPS spectra indicate that uranium(VI) is adsorbed on the non-woven through the interaction with multiple groups. This work shows that the sorbent may be a hopeful material for the extraction of uranium from seawater.