Solar enhanced uranium extraction from seawater with the efficient strategy of MXene loaded nano-porous polyamidoxime membrane

Uranium extraction from seawater is a significant avenue for achieving sustainable energy development, but low uranium concentration and low water temperature in the ocean make it an eunormous challenge to extract uranium from seawater. To overcome these challenges, incorporating photothermal conversion components into the adsorbent holds great promise for enhancing solar-driven uranium extraction from seawater. Herein, a photothermal adsorbent PAO@MXene (PM) membrane was designed by combining 2D MXene with excellent photothermal conversion performance and polyamidoxime (PAO) with excellent uranium adsorption performance. We first fabricated a nano-porous PAO membrane via electrospinning and then prepared the PM membrane with high photothermal conversion and adsorption performance using a simple ultrasonication method. Under light condition, the adsorption capacity of PM membrane reached 452.42 mg g-1 while the adsorption capacity is 352.32 mg g-1 under dark. The adsorption capacity of light is 28.41 % higher than that of dark. Moreover, PM membrane exhibits a high uranium adsorption capacity of 2.19 mg g-1 after contact with natural seawater for a week. The results indicate that the suggested strategy can achieve solar enhanced uranium extraction from seawater through a simple method.