Chemical enrichment and separation of uranyl ions in aqueous media using novel polyurethane foam chemically grafted with different basic dyestuff sorbents

The new type of the grafted polyurethane foam sorbents were prepared by coupling polyether polyol, toluene diisocyanate and basic dyestuff (Methylene blue, Rhodamine B and Brilliant green). The Me.B-PUF, Rh.B-PUF and Br.G-PUF were characterized using UV/vis, IR and TGA. The adsorption properties and chromatographic behaviour of these new adsorbents for preconcentration and separation of uranium(VI) ions at low concentrations from aqueous thiocyanate media were investigated by a batch process. The maximum sorption of U(VI) was in the pH ranges 1–4. The kinetics of sorption of the U(VI) by the Grafted-PUF were found to be fast with half life of sorption (t1/2) in 2.43 min. The average sorption capacity of different sorbents 0.124 meq g−1 for uranyl ions, enrichment factors ≈40 and the recovery 98–100% were achieved (R.S.D. ≈ 0.73%). The basic dyestuff Grafted-PUF could be used many times without decreasing their capacities significantly. The value of the Gibbs free energy (ΔG) for the sorbents is −7.3 kJ mol−1, which reflects the spontaneous nature of sorption process. The sorption mechanism of the metal ion onto Grafted-PUF was also discussed.