For the purpose of extracting uranium from sea water, a study has been made on the absorption by titanium hydroxide of uranium in simulated sea water.
It was found that the HCO^-₃ ion has a negative effect on uronium absorption when its concentration is higher than 5×10^-3 mol/l.
The relation between equilibrated uronium absorption and the concentration of uranium in the solution followed Freundlich's formula in the region of low concentration. For a uranium concentration of 3μg/l, the value of equilibrated absorption was about 200μg/g.
The absorption efficiency was found to be proportionate to the reciprocal of the granule radius of the titanium hydroxide in the range of 0.27-0.04mm.
As eluting reagent, (NH₄)₂CO₃, Na₂CO₃ and NaHCO₃ were studied, of which, 1.5M (NH₄)₂CO₃ was found to give the best results: For the case where 0.5g of titanium hydroxide was used for the absorption, when 4mg of uranium was absorbed, 20ml of 1.5M (NH₄)₂CO₃ eluted 67% of the uranium and 80ml of the same eluting solution eluted 90% of uranium at room temperature. The eluthg efficiency was seen to increase with rising temperature.