Study of some metallic silicates as ion-exchangers

The extraction of ammine complexes of Cu²⁺, Cd²⁺, Ni²⁺, Co²⁺ and Zn²⁺ by synthesised manganese, nickel and zinc silicates has been studied at different pH and ionic concentrations in the external solution. It has been found that the uptake of the metal ion Co²⁺, Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺ increases with increase in pH of the external solution, attains a maximum and then decreases. However, the uptake for Cd²⁺ and Ni²⁺ increases continuously. The q_A values of all the silicates increases with the increase in the concentration of the exchanging ion and its order for the investigated metal ions is Ni²⁺ < Co²⁺ < Cd²⁺ < Zn²⁺ < Cu²⁺.