Adsorption of uranium by amination mesoporous molecular sieve HMS, using response surface methodology

ABSTRACT In this study, amino modified mesoporous silica (HMS-TEEPA-TEA) was used for the first time to remove uranium (VI) from aqueous solution. The synthesized HMS-TEEPA-TEA was characterized by SEM, EDS, FTIR, BET and XPS techniques. The present work attempted to optimize and compare the adsorption process parameters like pH, adsorbate concentration, and adsorbent dose using Box-Behnken designs of response surface methodology. The adsorption amount and removal rate reached 337.26 mg/g and 99.57%, respectively. Model P> F < 0.0001 in this experiment (generally P > F < 0.05 is considered significant), indicating that the model is extremely significant and can be considered as highly referable for its predicted response values. The fit of the data to the Langmuir isotherm and the proposed secondary kinetics indicates that the adsorption process is monolayer and chemical in nature. The effect of copper on HMS-TEEPA-TEA adsorption is more complex than other background ions. The removal of uranium (VI) by HMS-TEEPA-TEA remained above 80% for four consecutive experiments with repeated adsorbent use. The results indicate that HMS-TEEPA-TEA is an effective adsorbent for the removal of uranium (VI) from aqueous solutions with the advantages of low cost, high availability and easy production.