Removal of lanthanum, cerium and thorium metal ions from aqueous solution using ZrT hybrid ion exchanger

In this paper, a hybrid exchanger, zirconium triethylenetetramine (ZrT), of the class of tetravalent metal acid (TMA) salts, has been synthesized by the sol-gel method. In the present work, an attempt has been to investigate the sorption behavior of lanthanum, cerium, and thorium metal ions towards ZrT exchanger in various electrolytes media with different concentrations. In order to understand the uptake behavior of ZrT, parametric studies, kinetic and thermodynamic studies have been investigated. Distribution studies data revealed the feasibility of binary lanthanide separations using ZrT and show possibility of its promising use as an efficient ion exchanger in the treatment of water containing radioactive metal waste. In general, the decay storage or ion exchange treatment is used for the treatment of aqueous waste generated from the low nuclear power reactor. As per the report (IAEA-TECDOC-654, 1992), such nuclear aqueous waste generated is found acidic in view of used acidic chemicals during the process. The use of ZrT will be effective or in other words, ZrT can be a potential candidate to be used as an ion-exchange material for the treatment of such nuclear aqueous waste, after optimizing the process parameters, in particular maintaining the pH in the range of 4-5.