The material is made from polyethylene fibers, similar to PVC, woven into braids and grafted with chains of a uranium-attractive chemical called amidoxine.
The adsorbent works by immobilizing (i.e., coordinating) metals on the highly grafted polymer. The use of metal coordination (i.e., grabbing the metal out of solution) allows U-Grabber to extract metals of interest from solutions where traditional adsorbents are cost prohibitive.
These solutions include high salinity solutions, such as geothermal brines, or high sulfate streams, which include some municipal water sources.