Use of Imidazole 4,5-Dicarboxylic Acid Resin in Vanadium Speciation

 A new resin has been synthesized by functionalisation of polystyrene-divinylbenzene (8%) with imidazole 4,5-dicarboxylic acid through –N=N– bonding. The resulting resin has been characterised by elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy, hydrogen ion capacity and metal ion capacity. The speciation study of vanadium has been studied by using this resin and the maximum exchange capacity was found to be 0.45 mmol g⁻¹ for V⁴⁺ and that for V⁵⁺ was 1.57 mmol g⁻¹ at pH 3 for both. The eluents malonic acid and sodium hydroxide have been used for the selective separation of vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V) species respectively. The effects of diverse ions on the sorption and recovery of each species have been studied. Finally, the developed method has been applied for the speciation and determination of these two species in natural water samples. Correspondence: Department of Chemistry, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, India. e-mail: akdas100@yahoo.com Received December 20, 2001; accepted October 11, 2002