Metal oxide assisted magnetic NiFe₂O₄ for efficient recovery of uranium from solution

Abstract Uranium is one of the important elements in the nuclear industry, and the efficient recovery of uranium resources has become an urgent problem to be solved. Adsorption is a widely used uranium recovery technology, offering advantages such as high efficiency, low cost and simple operation. In this paper, a novel CdO/NiFe 2 O 4 magnetic composite is synthesized and characterized by SEM, XRD and XPS, and the results showed that the recovery rate and maximum adsorption capacity of U(VI) by CdO/NiFe 2 O 4 magnetic composite reaches to 96.91 % and 167.60 mg·g −1 , respectively. The adsorption kinetics conformed to the quasi-secondary model, and the adsorption process is dominated by chemisorption. The thermodynamic results showed that the adsorption was spontaneous. The CdO/NiFe 2 O 4 not only had strong adsorption capacity, but also possessed magnetic properties, which was convenient for separating and recovering materials under the action of magnetic field. The adsorption mechanism suggests that the oxygen-containing functional groups in CdO enhance the recovery of uranium by NiFe 2 O 4 .