Tailored synthesis of SBA-15 rods using different types of acids and its application in adsorption of uranium

Monodisperse SBA-15 rods with tunable size, synthesized by a facile and low-cost route using different types of acids (HCl (monobasic acid), H2SO4 (binary acid) and H3PO4 (ternary acid)) as media and inexpensive powder quartz as silica source without any additives, was developed as an absorbent to extract uranium from radioactive waste water. The effect of the type of acid on the structure and morphology of the obtained mesoporous SBA-15 was investigated. SBA-15 rods with varying lengths (1082-1354 nm) and diameters (279-361 nm) were tailored by simply using different types of acids. The number of H in acid molecular was identified to be the key factor affecting the structure and morphology of the SBA-15 rods. It was found that the length and diameter of these SBA-15 rods increased with increase of the number of H in acid molecular. Furthermore, the adsorption behavior of uranium on these SBA-15 rods was investigated and the results showed that all these SBA-15 rods demonstrated rapid (30 min to reach equilibrium) and high capacity (235 mg g(-1)) for adsorption of uranium. This work demonstrated that these SBA-15 rods prepared with different types of acids from powder quartz exhibited improved performance for the extraction of uranium.