Adsorption behavior and separation of vanadium(V), molybdenum(VI), and rhenium(VII) ions on crosslinked polymers containing acrylic acid derivative moieties

The radical polymerization of [2‐(acryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium methyl sulfate and [3‐(methacryloylamino)propyl]trimethylammonium chloride by using ammonium peroxydisulfate as initiator and N,N′‐methylene‐bis‐acrylamide as crosslinker agent at 70°C for 17 h was carried out. The crosslinker agent in the feed ranged between 2 and 6 mol %. The resins were completely insoluble in water and characterized by elemental analysis and FTIR spectroscopy. The metal ion binding capacity of these resins with V(V), Mo(VI), and Re(VII) were investigated using the batch equilibrium type. The pH, but not the crosslinking percentage in the feed, influenced the retention capacity of the resin, particularly for V(V) and Re(VII). Thus, at pH 1 only < 15% of V(V) was retained, but at pH 3 higher than 97% of V(V) was adsorbed. The resin–ion equilibrium was achieved between 15 min and 2 h depending on the resin, ion, and crosslinking degree. According to the pH, it is possible separate Re(VII) and Mo(VI) from V(V) at pH 1.0. To reuse the resins, the ions were stripped by using HCl, H₂SO₄, and Na₂CO₃ at different concentrations. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 369–376, 1999