ADSORPTION OF HEAVY METALS IN SEAWATER USING AMIDOXIME ADSORBENT PREPARED BY GAMMA IRRADIATION TECHNIQUE

Abstract

For safety and safeguards purposes, amidoxime fibers were investigated for the ability to adsorb heavy metals from seawater. Amidoxime fibers were successfully synthesized by the simultaneous irradiation grafting technique at low temperature using Co-60 as the gamma ray source. The degree of cografting of AN/MAA onto LDPE fibers at the total dose of 40 kGy was calculated to be approximately 52%. The fibers exhibit the ability to adsorb Pb, As, Hg and uranium form seawater. Under the studied conditions, for the case of Pb, the adsorption capability was 5.33 – 33.50 g-Pb/kg-adsorbent. For the case of As, the adsorption capability was approximately 0.25 – 0.77 g-As/kg-adsorbent. For the case of Hg, the adsorption capability was approximately 0.0001 – 0.0075 g-Hg/kg-adsorbent. For the case of U, the adsorption capability was approximately 0.0005 – 0.0057 g-U/kg-adsorbent.The adsorption also reduced with submerging time. Thus, the amidoxime fibers can be used as a very effective detector for Pb, As, Hg and uranium in seawater for the submerging time as short as 3 days.