Competitive sorption behavior of mono, di, and trivalent ions in highly acidic waste by polymeric resin based on crotonic acid prepared by gamma radiation

Understanding the chemical behavior and interactions of mono, di, and trivalent metal ions in highly acidic solutions is very important in trying to predict their sorption process onto polymeric materials. In this work, the efficient polymeric resin has been prepared by gamma radiation approach during copolymerization synthesis of poly sodium styrene sulphonate and crotonic acid through systematic investigation. An installment of different parameters was constructed including polymer concentration, radiation dose, and how it affects equilibrium water content (EWC- swelling degree). The prepared polymer was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and point of zero charges (pHZPC) analyses. The structure of such prepared co-polymeric resin analogous reaction was constructed. It was discovered that when the quantity of poly sodium styrene sulphonate increases, the copolymer forms more quickly and produces white crystalline materials. The sorption behavior of Fe3+, La3+ Ce3+, Eu3+, Sr2+ and Cs+ ions on the polymeric material was tested in a highly acidic aqueous solution taking into consideration the optimum solution pH, and initial metal concentration. The sorption ratio between different valence is challenging because of the competition of ion-specific, and binding saturation effects. Fortunately, in highly acidic waste, the synthesized polymeric resin exhibit higher removal efficiency for trivalent metal ions including Fe3+, Eu3+,Ce3+, and La3+ more than divalent Sr2+ and monovalent Cs+ ions with maximum sorption capacity 58, 56, 52, 48, 38 and 6.4 mg/g respectively. Finally, the synthesized polymeric resin P(SSS-Co-CA) is considered a promising sorbent for the selective separation of trivalent metal ions, especially in highly acidic solutions produced from acid digestion of real samples containing trivalent lanthanides.