The CCTS-DHBA resin can adsorb several metal cations and several oxoanionic elements at appropriate pH. Among these metal ions, uranium shows an excellent adsorption behavior on this resin. Uranium as UO22+ species can be adsorbed on the resin by chelating mechanism with adsorption capacity of 330 mg g−1 resin. Through the column treatment, the complete removal of large amounts of alkali and alkaline earth matrices without any loss of adsorption efficiency over prolonged usage were achieved with this resin.
The CCTS-DHBA resin was applied to the adsorption/collection of uranium in tap water, river water and seawater samples with satisfactory results. The validation of the proposed method was carried out by analyzing uranium in the standard reference materials of SLRS-4, CASS-4, and NASS-5 after passing through the CCTS-DHBA resin, and the results showed good agreement with the certified values.