SELECTIVE SORPTION OF HEAVY-METAL THIOCYANATE COMPLEXES ON CROWN ETHER RESIN

The sorption behavior of heavy metal thiocyanate complexes was investigated for dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6 (DB18C6) resin and bis[2‐(o‐methoxyphenoxy)ethyl]ether (BMPE) resin. The DB18C6 resin showed a high sorption ability and the degree of zinc sorption increased significantly with thiocyanate concentration. This behavior was not observed for BMPE resin. The sorption behavior was influenced by the countercation species, and the degree of sorption of zinc ions showed the maximum when the potassium thiocyanate was used as a complexing salt. The sorbed species appear to be KZn(SCN)3, K2Zn(SCN)4 in the potassium thiocyanate system, and Zn(SCN)2 in the lithium thiocyanate system, respectively, according to analysis of the sorption equilibrium. Sodium and ammonium thiocyanate systems show an intermediate behavior of the two. The sorption selectivity for DB18C6 resin depended not only on the hydrophobic nature of heavy metal thiocyanate complexes but also on the stabilization of counter cation species with crown ether matrix, and the sorption selectively was found to be effectively controlled by countercation species according to the cation‐chelation mechanism. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.