Surfactant-assisted adsorption of uranyl ions in aqueous solution on TiO₂/polythiophene nanocomposite

In this work, hexadecyltrimethylammonium-bromide (HTAB)-modified polythiophene (PTh)/TiO₂ nanocomposite (HTAB/PTh/TiO₂) was applied to remove uranyl ions (UO₂²⁺). FT-IR, XRD, ζ potential, TGA, SEM, and XPS were utilized to obtain the chemical and physical properties of HTAB/PTh/TiO₂. The effects of HTAB content, preparation temperature, and adsorption conditions on UO₂²⁺ removal were investigated comprehensively. And the UO₂²⁺ adsorption process on HTAB/PTh/TiO₂ was fitted to the Sips model with a saturated adsorption capacity of 234.74 mg/g, which was 6 times over TiO₂. The results suggested that the surfactant of HTAB can significantly improve the adsorption ability of TiO₂ for UO₂²⁺ ions. This work provides a strategy of surfactant modification for enhancing the separation and recovery ability of adsorbent toward UO₂²⁺ in the radioactive wastewater.