Behavior of Tire Derived Pre-Functionalized Carbon Black for Uranium Adsorption

Extracting uranium from the solution phase has been a challenge as very few sorbents present high adsorption efficiency. A novel adsorbent in the form of Recycled Tire Carbon Black (RTCB), derived from pyrolysis of used tires, has shown promising results in adsorbing uranium from solution phase better than other functionalized carbon materials. The RTCB has been presented as a cheap and effective sorbent whose properties don’t need to be altered to obtain nearly 97% adsorption and 99% elution using 0.15M HCl. Kinetic tests were performed to understand the adsorption rates. Langmuir isotherm model estimated that the adsorption capacity was ∼45.45 mg U/g RTCB at 80 °C with enhanced adsorption kinetics predicted by first order rate laws. In addition, the RTCB demonstrated better adsorption performance at lower pH. Characterization preformed using BET, illustrated that the surface area of the RTCB was 57 m2/g while FTIR confirmed the presence of thiol (R-S-H) functional group on the surface.