Thermodynamic study to evaluate the selectivity behaviour of nuclear grade resin Indion-223 towards some univalent ions

The present paper deals with the application of thermodynamic concept in understanding the preferential selectivity of nuclear grade anion exchange resin Indion-223 in H+ form towards Na+ and K+ ions in the solution. In the study it was observed that the equilibrium constants K values for H+/Na+ and H+/K+ uni-univalet ion exchange reactions increases from 0.01389 to 0.01855 and from 0.01710 to 0.02374 respectively as the temperature increases from 35.0 °C to 45.0 °C. The increase in K values with rise in temperature suggests endothermic ion exchange reactions having the enthalpy change values of 25.55 and 22.72 kJ/ mol respectively. Based on difference in K values and enthalpy values for the two uni-univalent ion exchange reactions, the preferential selectivity of the resin for the univalent ions in the solution was predicted. From the results of present study, it appears that the experimental technique used here can be applied further to understand the ionic selectivity of different industrial grade ion exchange resins. It is expected that such studies will provide valuable information in order to decide about the selection of those resins for efficient separation of various ionic species present in the industrial waste water effluents.