Organic Ion Exchangers. Synthesis, Characterization and Applications

1Introduction Organic ion exchangers in beads form are the most widely utilized materials in the purification, concentration and separation processes of inorganic and organic ions in many fields of science and industry[1,2]. Some original contributions in the preparation and characterization of porous organic ion exchangers will be summarized first. The main types of synthetic ion exchangers were obtained by polymer-analogous reactions performed on porous styrene-divinylbenzene copolymers (S-DVB)[3,4] and porous acrylonitrile-DVB copolymers (AN-DVB) [5,6]. Porous S-DVB copolymers were used as substrate for the synthesis of weak and strong base anion exchangers by chloromethylation reaction followed by the reaction with secondary or tertiary amines.Different chloromethylation agents were employed. Weak base anion exchangers with tertiary or primary amine groups were prepared starting from AN-DVB copolymers by aminolyse-hydrolyse reaction with asymmetrical diamines or ethylenediamine (EDA), respectively. Strong base anion exchangers were obtained by quaternization reaction with alkyl halides of the tertiary amine groups. Chelating ion exchangers with iminodiacetic groups were prepared by the carboxymethylation reaction of the primary amine groups above mentioned and of those contained in a vinylamine-ethylacrylate-DVB copolymer, vinylamine units being generated by a Hofmann degradation reaction of the primary amide groups contained in the acrylamide-ethylacrylate-DVB copolymerp[7]. An amphoteric ion exchanger was prepared by the hydrolysis of the ester groups after the Hofmann degradation.