Efficient uranium adsorption of low-cost and eco-friendly MQ<sub>2</sub>-collagen fibers (M = Mo, W; Q = S, Se) composite materials prepared by co-ball milling

<p indent="0mm">Due to the strong chemical toxicity and radiological hazard, uranium poses long-term threat to both environment and living organisms. However, soluble UO₂²⁺ ions with the mobility leads to difficulties in effectively capturing uranium from complex radioactive wastewater. Herein, the efficient U(VI) adsorption is achieved by MQ₂-collagen fibers (MoS₂-CF; M = Mo, W; Q = S, Se) composite prepared via co-ball milling MQ₂ and CF, which exhibit higher uranium adsorption performance with the saturated adsorption capacity (<italic>q</italic>_e) of <sc>301 mg g⁻¹</sc> than pristine MQ₂ due to their better hydrophilicity and the advantage of fibrous structure for better UO₂²⁺ transfer. The adsorption mechanism is revealed to be the synergistic interaction of abundant S²⁻ sites from MoS₂ and amino and carboxyl groups from CF towards UO₂²⁺. This work proposes a universal preparation method for low-cost and eco-friendly composite materials combining transition metal dichalcogenide with CF by co-ball milling for efficient uranium adsorption.