Research on hydrous titanium oxide absorbent extracting uranium from seawater by means of XRD, SEM and EDAX

Hydrous titanium oxide (HTO) adsorbents containing the same water content, which were prepared under different temperature cond'tions, were studied by means of valuing uranium-extracting activity, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersing analysis of X-ray (EDAX). The main results obtained are as follows. The content of anatase crystallite varies progressively with the change of preparation temperature. There are intimate relationships among crystallite content, surface appearance and uranium-extracting activity. The uranium-extracting activity will be optimal when the content proportion of crystallite to amorphism is moderate. There are considerable differences in chemical composition between HTO surface phase and bulk phase, between surface matrix and microzone, and between one microzone and another. An important factor affecting the uranium-extracting capacity is the absorption competition among so many elements in seawater, especially the covering of calcium insoluble salt on HTO surface.