Antibacterial AO-CS/CdS-porous few-layer g-C3N4 nanofiber membrane for high-efficiency uranium extraction from seawater: A dual adsorption-photocatalytic regulation strategy

Developing a uranium extraction material from seawater with high performance and sustainable use is still challenging. Herein, a dual regulation strategy was proposed to prepare AO-CS/CdS-porous few-layer g-C3N4 nanofiber membrane (SN-ACP) with a visible light response by electrospinning technology. SN-ACP has both adsorption and photocatalytic uranium extraction properties. ACP nanofiber membrane can solve the short-comings of SN nanoparticles, which are easy to agglomerate and challenging to recover, while SN nanoparticles can further improve the uranium extraction capacity and selectivity of ACP nanofiber membrane. More importantly, SN-ACP showed good antibacterial properties under both dark and light conditions, which could effectively resist membrane fouling caused by marine fouling organisms during real seawater applications. In addition, the synergy of SN and ACP significantly improved the uranium extraction performance, with a 6 % SN-ACP nanofiber membrane exhibiting 1.74 times higher uranium extraction capacity than the ACP nanofiber membrane. Moreover, the SN-ACP nanofiber membrane also has excellent selectivity and stability. This work not only provides a method of uranium extraction combined with adsorption and photocatalysis but also provides a new idea for developing a new generation of multifunctional nanofiber membranes.