Separation of europium, cobalt and zinc on zirconium tungstate ion exchanger

Summary Amorphous zirconium tungstate inorganic ion-exchanger has been prepared under optimum conditions and characterized by IR, X-ray and thermal analysis. Surface area and capacity are determined. It has characteristic IR absorption peaks at 3242, 1628, 955, 868 and 432 cm^-1 and is thermally stable up to 450 °C. Its surface area was 16 m²/g with an exchange capacity of 0.541 meq/g. The sorption of radioactive europium from different media at ambient temperature by the zirconium tungstate (ZW) exchanger has been studied. The aim was to optimize the conditions for sorbing Eu from radioactive waste and cleaned the ZW from for recycling. The effect of contact time, metal concentration, pH and temperature has been measured. Percentual uptake of Eu(III) reaches 95% for HCl at pH 4 and increases with temperature indicating an endothermic sorption process. Uptake of Zn(II) and Co(II) on ZW from acetic acid was found to be 42% and 24% for cobalt and zinc, respectively. Desorption after saturation and the effect of other radioactive ions on the percentual uptake of Eu on ZW were investigated. A solution of 3M HCl releases 90%, 25% and 13% of the loaded Eu(III), Co(II) and Zn(II), respectively.