Poly(Amidoxime) Chelating Resin Used for Separation of Metal Ions in Aqueous Media  

M Z Ab Rahman*, Lutfor Rahman, and Sidik Silong,

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, (Malaysia)

Poly(amidoxime) chelating resin was used to bind the metal ions and breakthrough curves were plotted for examine the separation of metal ions. It was observed that the marked differences of breakthrough points were achieved for mutual separation of metal ions under optimum condition. The effect of a flow rate was found significant and the quantitative separation of metal ions was considered using the flow rate at 0.4 ml min-1. The effect of sulfuric acid on the elution of metal ions form poly(amidoxime) resin has examined and preliminary experiments shows that Cu and Fe are almost completely retained by the exchanger in 0.01 M H2SO4. In this medium most of the other bivalent ions was readily eluted. It is evident from elution studies that some selective separation is feasible using the amidoxime resin.

Poly (amidoxime) resin; metal ions