Petroleum pitch-based porous aromatic frameworks with phosphonate ligand for efficient separation of uranium from radioactive effluents

Abstract Porous aromatic frameworks with structural/pore controllability and rigid skeletons present a series of emerging materials for solid phase extraction. However, the complicated monomers or noble metal catalyst, and cumbersome synthetic strategies result in high-cost engineering application of porous aromatic frameworks. Herein, a simple synthetic strategy of porous aromatic frameworks with phosphonate is reported for efficient separation of uranium from radioactive effluents, and petroleum pitch, a low-cost and widely available material, was used as the building block. 4-Vinylbenzylphosphonic acid diethyl ester monomer is introduced to chelate uranium and to improve the aqueous dispersibility of sorbents. The phosphonate functionalized PPAFs take 40 min to achieve adsorption equilibrium, and the maximum sorption capacity reaches 147 mg U/g at pH 1.0. PPAFs exhibit good selectivity over various competing ions and excellent radioresistance in acidic solution. Besides, PPAFs remain almost 100% sorption efficiency and intact structure over 5 sorption-desorption cycles with alkaline eluent. This work not only applies a low-cost material for uranium extraction, but a new idea for the utilization of waste and recycling of resources.