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Fabrication of a novel electrospun polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid nanofiber adsorbent loading with montmorillonite or zeolite for uranium (VI) removal

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Abstract

A novel combined technology involving electrospinning, and hydrothermal tactics was developed to fabricate polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid (PVA/PAA) superhydrophilic nanofibers supported on montmorillonite (MMT) or zeolite. A series of structural characterizations and activity measurements demonstrate that the montmorillonite or zeolite support can significantly decrease the mean nanofiber diameter, resulting in more abundant active sites toward the adsorption of uranium. The maximum monolayer sorption capacity for MMT/PVA/PAA and zeolite/PVA/PAA nanofibers reached as high as 170.53 and 205.75 mg/g, respectively. Five adsorption and desorption cycle experiments demonstrated that the synthetic materials possessed good renewable performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science foundation of China (11905029, 22066001, 11875105, and 21866006); Project of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education (GJJ190397); Independent fund of State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Resources and Environment of the East China University of Technology (2020Z19); Fundamental Science on Radioactive Geology and Exploration Technology Laboratory (RGET1906) and Research Foundation for Advanced Talents of East China University of Technology (DHBK2019133).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Resources and Environment, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China

    Zhuyao Li, Dandan Tang, Ying Dai, Qinqin Tao & Zhirong Liu

  2. School of Chemistry, Biological and Materials Sciences, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China

    Zhuyao Li, Ying Dai, Rong Zou, Hui Liu & Zhirong Liu

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  1. Zhuyao Li
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Correspondence to Ying Dai or Qinqin Tao.

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Ying Dai and Qinqin Tao contributed equally to this work.

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Li, Z., Tang, D., Dai, Y. et al. Fabrication of a novel electrospun polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid nanofiber adsorbent loading with montmorillonite or zeolite for uranium (VI) removal. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 297–307 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-08092-1

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