Adsorption characteristics of thorium on silica-based anion exchange resins

摘要: To isolate and separate thorium from nitric acid solutions, three silica-based anion exchange resins were synthesized. Batch experiments were carried out to investigate adsorption behavior of thorium in nitric acid solutions. Adsorption at different concentrations of nitric acid and thorium, influence of contact time and coexisting metal ions, and effect of NO₃^- were investigated in detail. It was found that at high HNO₃ concentrations, the resins exhibited higher adsorption capacity and better affinity towards thorium. The adsorption kinetics could be described by the pseudo-second order model equation, while the adsorption isotherms were well correlated by the Langmuir model. The maximum capacity towards thorium species on SiPyR-N4 was evaluated at 27–28 mg/g-resin. The thermodynamic parameters indicated the adsorption was an exothermic reaction. The presence of NO₃^- was found to promote the retention of the thorium species.