Sorption and preconcentration of uranium and thorium from aqueous solutions using multi-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with magnetic nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract The presented study investigates application of MWCNTs-Fe3O4 nanocomposite as an adsorbent for solid phase extraction and preconcentration of uranium and thorium prior to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry determination. The magnetic MWCNTs with adsorbed analytes can be easily separated from the aqueous solution by using an external magnet without additional centrifugation or filtration of the sample. Due to the high surface area of MWCNTs, satisfactory concentration factor and extraction recovery can be achieved with only 10 mg nanocomposite in 5 min. The effects of pH, sorbent amount, eluent type, chelating reagent concentration, sample volume and time on the recovery of the analytes were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, the detection limits for U(VI) and Th(IV) were 0.44 and 0.27 μg L –1, respectively.