Speciality commercial ion exchange resins for use in nuclear industries for antimony removal: A systematic study

Antimony, a metalloid, is present in effluents generated in diverse industries. Antimony is of high concern in nuclear industries in particular due to the presence of its active isotopes. Safe management of such antimony containing effluents is a crucial problem which currently lacks viable solution. One of the reasons is the lack of availability of well-studied antimony removal agents. In this context, three commercially available speciality ion exchange resins (Tulsion® CH-87, CH-90 and CH-99) were evaluated for their antimony removal ability. Among the three resins evaluated, Tulsion® CH-99, a polyhydroxy amine-based resin, showed favourable results and its antimony binding properties were studied in detail. Tulsion® CH-99 showed fast uptake kinetics, selectivity, and antimony removal under wide solution pH conditions. Saturation capacities obtained were found to be 83 mg.g−1 (0.68 mmol.g−1) for Sb(V) and 73.1 mg.g−1 (0.6 mmol.g−1) for Sb(III). Batch and column studies carried out with simulated decontamination and reprocessing effluents of nuclear industry showed selective antimony uptake. Antimony uptake from typical reprocessing effluent (referred to as High Level Waste (HLW)), which has highly acidic and complex matrix (3 M HNO3 and a suite of competing ions such as Cr(VI)), demonstrated the high stability and antimony selectivity of the investigated resin.