Uranium removal using composite membranes incorporated with chitosan grafted phenylenediamine from liquid waste solution

New composite membranes of polysulfone (PSu) and cellulose acetate (CA) incorporated with pre-synthesized chitosan grafted p-phenylenediamine (Ch-g-PDA) were prepared and tested for uranium adsorption. The new composite membrane offers easily handling, low cost and reasonable efficiency adsorptive candidate. The prepared membranes were characterized with FTIR, XRD, SEM and EDX. Application of the new membranes in uranium removal from its waste was investigated. Optimization the adsorption variables as metal ion concentration, pH and contact time were performed followed with adsorption isotherm and kinetics models in order to estimate the adsorption mechanism and rate. The Langmuir model can define the isotherm adsorption with a maximum capacity of 44 mg g−1 and 39 mg g−1 for synthesized PSu/C-g-PDA and CA/C-g-PDA, respectively, within short time. Uranium adsorption experimental data demonstrated that both adsorbents were well fitting with Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetics model. The reusability of the membrane in six adsorption desorption cycles, resulted in adsorption efficiency of 85.8, and 83.8 % for for synthesized PSu/C-g-PDA and CA/C-g-PDA, respectively, of the initial values which indicate the stability and efficiency of the composite membranes in U removal from waste solution.