Remarkable enhancement in radio-cesium uptake from acidic feeds into an extraction chromatography resin containing a calix[4]arene-mono-crown-6 ligand

An extraction chromatography resin, prepared by the impregnation of bis-octyloxy-calix[4]arene-mono-crown-6 (BOCMC)onto an acrylic ester based polymeric support material, gave excellent uptake data for the removal of radio-cesium (Cs-137) from nitric acid feed solutions. The weight distribution coefficient (K_d) value of >300 obtained during the present study at 3 M HNO₃ was the highest reported so far while using a calix-crown-6 based extraction chromatographic resin material. Analogous resin reported previously has yielded a K_d value <100 at comparable feed conditions. The sorbed metal ions could be efficiently desorbed with de-ionized water. Kinetic modeling of the uptake data indicated that both the film and the intra-particle diffusion mechanism are simultaneously operating in the sorption of Cs⁺ion onto the BOCMC resin. The metal ion sorption data were fitted to the sorption isotherm models and did not conform to the chemisorptions of physisorption models and indicated a pi-pi interaction between the benzene rings of the calix-crown-6 ligand and the Cs⁺ ion. The reusability of the resins was quite satisfactory after 5 cycles and the radiation stability of the resin material was very good upto an absorbed dose of 500 kGy. The results of column studies were quite encouraging with 15 mL (9 bed volumes) as the breakthrough volume while the elution was complete in about 12 bed volumes of de-ionized water.