Comparison of some organic and inorganic ion exchangers concerning the sorption of Ce(III), Te(IV), Zr(IV), Hf(IV) and Nb(V)

The sorption behaviors of Ce(III), as a representative of trivalent lanthanide ions, and Te(IV), Zr(IV) and Nb(V) as fission products representatives, as well as Hf(IV), from various aqueous media on some synthesized inorganic exchangers, as well as commercially available organic ion exchangers were studied and compared. Organic cation exchanger Dowex-50WX8 and organic anion exchangers AG-1X8 and AG-2X8 were utilized. Synthesized inorganic ion exchangers were zirconium titanium phosphate (ZrTiP) of different Zr:Ti mole ratios and ceric tungstate (CeW). The sorption was carried out from mineral acid solutions as well as EDTA and DTPA solutions. The radioactive isotopes, Zr-95, Nb-95, Te-123m, Ce-141 and Hf-181 were used to trace the sorption behaviors of the corresponding elements, which were studied in mixtures of them. The differences between the sorption behaviors of the studied metal ionic species on both kinds of ion exchangers were interpreted and discussed in this work.