Author(s)

Hiroyuki Hoshina^*, Yuji Ueki, Seiichi Saiki, Noriaki Seko

Environment and Industrial Materials Research Division, Quantum Beam Science Center, Sector of Nuclear Science Research, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Takasaki, Japan.

2-ethylhexyl hydrogen-2-ethylhexylphosphonate (EHEP) is commonly used as a metal extractant because it has a particular affinity for rare-earth metals like Scandium (Sc). To develop a highly-selective adsorbent of Sc(III), EHEP was introduced as a functional group onto a polyethylene fabric with radiation-induced graft polymerization(RIGP). The adsorption performances for Sc(III) were evaluated with aqueous solutions containing Sc(III) and Fe(III) in bath and column tests. As a result of column test, the adsorption capacities of Sc(III) and Fe(III) until the bed volume reached 5000 were 5.22 and 0.12 mg/g, respectively. It means that the amount of collected Sc(III) by the EHEP adsorbent was approximately 44 times higher than that of Fe(III). These results indicate that the grafted adsorbent containing EHEP has an extremely high selectivity for Sc(III) adsorption.

Fibrous Adsorbent, Scandium, Radiation-Induced Graft Polymerization, Selective Adsorption, 2-Ethylhexyl Hydrogen-2-Ethylhexylphosphonate

Hoshina, H. , Ueki, Y. , Saiki, S. and Seko, N. (2014) Synthesis of Highly-Selective Fibrous Adsorbent by Introducing 2-Ethylhexyl Hydrogen-2-Ethylhexylphosphonate for Scandium Adsorption. International Journal of Organic Chemistry, 4, 195-200. doi: 10.4236/ijoc.2014.43022.