Nondestructive radioactive tracer technique in performance evaluation of organic based ion exchange materials Purolite NRW-4000 and Duolite A-378

Abstract

Abstract The present paper demonstrates nondestructive application of the 131I and 82Br radioisotopes in performance evaluation of organic base anion exchange resins Purolite NRW-4000 and Duolite A-378. The evaluation was based on kinetics of iodide and bromide ion-isotopic exchange reactions taking place between the external ionic solution and the resin surface. It was observed that at a constant temperature of 35.0 °C when the concentration of bromide ions in solution increases from 0.001 mol/L to 0.004 mol/L, the specific reaction rate values for bromide ion-isotopic exchange increases from 0.228 to 0.266 min−1 using Purolite NRW-4000 resins and from 0.160 to 0.185 min−1 using Duolite A-378 resins. Also it was observed that under the same experimental conditions, the percentage of bromide ions exchanged increases from 60.67 % to 67.00 % using Purolite NRW-4000 resin, while for Duolite A-378 resin it increases from 49.30 % to 52.00%. The identical trend was observed for the two resins during iodide ion-isotopic exchange reaction. The overall results indicate that under identical experimental conditions, as compared to Duolite A-378 resins, Purolite NRW-4000 resins shows superior performance. It is expected that the present nondestructive radiotracer technique can be extended further for characterization of series of nuclear as well as non-nuclear grade ion exchange resins. The results of such study will be immensely useful in proper selection of the ion exchange resins in various industrial applications.