Synthesis of irradiation-modified triphenylphosphine resins and study of the extraordinary enrichment behaviour of rhenium at low concentrations against a high uranium background

In order to recover the trace rhenium resources in the background environment of high uranium leach solution, we synthesized a resin suitable for the efficient adsorption of rhenium in a low concentration environment by using electron-accelerator irradiation grafting technology and high-density solidification of triphenylphosphine on the surface of styrene chlorine sphere skeleton, which can circumvent the internal diffusion process in ion exchange, and investigated the adsorption and desorption performance of the material in static and dynamic adsorption modes. The adsorption and desorption properties of the materials were investigated by static and dynamic adsorption. It is shown that the new resin has good enrichment ability for rhenium between pH = 1–10 and basically does not adsorb uranium resin saturated adsorption capacity of up to 233.58 mg/g, the maximum uranium-rhenium separation coefficient β (Re/U) is calculated to be 1840.6, the dynamic adsorption equilibrium time of 256 s. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and density-functional theory (DFT) were applied to investigate the adsorption and desorption effects and mechanisms of the new material. The adsorption and desorption effects and mechanisms were characterized, dynamic adsorption showed that the resin reached adsorption penetration at 270 BV (resin bed volume) and adsorption saturation at 520 BV, with a saturation-to-penetration ratio V_e/V_b (ratio of the saturation point to the penetration point volume) of 1.92, the saturated resin can be completely desorbed by 4 mol/L NH₄SCN at 100 BV, and the poor resin can be effectively regenerated by concentrated hydrochloric acid, and the exchange capacity of the resin can be restored over 91%, which has an important application prospect.