Antimicrobial ion-imprinted chitosan-derived hydrogel with quaternary ammonium and thermoresponsive components for...

Uranium recovery from wastewater or seawater is important for both pollution control and uranium supply. Due to the complexity of the water body, it requires that the adsorbent should not only be highly efficient for selective adsorption but also have good antimicrobial properties. In this study, an antimicrobial thermosensitive hydrogel (UITAC) for uranium adsorption was prepared by one-step ion-imprinted polymerization using chitosan as a substrate and allyl trimethylammonium chloride as the antimicrobial modifier. UITAC showed excellent antibacterial rate against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, being 98.8 % and 89.1 %, respectively. Endothermic and exothermic peaks respectively showed up at 36.3-38.5 °C and 30.5-34.1 °C in the DSC curves. UITAC quickly achieved its adsorption equilibrium in 30.0 min at 50 °C, pH 5.0 in the 0.8 mg/mL UO₂²⁺ solution, with an adsorption capacity of 81.2 mg/g. The adsorption capacity could remain at 80 % after 5 cycles of repeated use. UITAC showed better adsorption selectivity to UO₂²⁺ than vanadium and other metal ions, with selectivity coefficients α(UO₂²⁺/Mⁿ⁺) being 1.4-10.3. The pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir adsorption model had a better fit for UO₂²⁺ adsorption by UITAC. The adsorption was a spontaneous process. The Gibbs Free Energy change, enthalpy change, and entropy change at 323.2 K were - 16.0 kJ/mol, 64.3 kJ/mol, and 248.4 J/mol·K, respectively. UITAC showed high potential in practical application environment.