Recovery of uranium from seawater using amidoxime hollow fibers

A novel amidoxime-group-containing adsorbent of hollow-fiber form (AO-H fiber) was prepared by radiation-induced graft polymerization of acrylonitrile onto a polyethylene hollow fiber, followed by chemical conversion of the produced cyano group to an amidoxime group. Distribution of the amidoxime group was uniform throughout the hollow-fiber membrane. The fixed-bed adsorption column, 30 cm in length and charged with the bundle of AO-H fibers, was found to adsorb uranium from natural seawater at a sufficiently high rate: 0.66 mg uranium per g of adsorbent in 25 days.