REMOVAL OF W-185, MO-99 AND SB-125 RADIOISOTOPES FROM AQUEOUS-SOLUTIONS USING POLYAMINE INCORPORATED POLYSACCHARIDES

Polyamino group-containing resins act both as chelating ion exchangers and weakly basic anion exchangers depending upon the species in conta ct in the solution. In the present work, ion exchangers based on polya mine incorporated polysaccharides (cellulose and galactomannan or guar an) have been used for removal of radioisotopes of W-185 as WO42-, Mo- 99 as MoO42- and Sb-125 as Sb3+ from their separate aqueous solutions. These chelating anion exchangers have been synthesized by reaction of polysaccharides with epichlorohydrin followed by the respective polya mines as nucleophiles in a strongly alkaline medium. WO42- and MoO42- are adsorbed from their aqueous solutions through anion exchange proce ss by chloride form of cellulose-triethylenetetraamine (cellulose-trie n), cellulose-tetraethylenepentaamine (cellulose-tetren), guaran-triet hylenetetraamine (guar-trien) and guar-tetraethylenepentaamine (guar-t etren) weakly basic anion exchangers. Guar-tetren chelating polymer ha s been found to be highly selective for Sb-125 isotopes presumably due to the presence of chelating cis-hydroxy and tetren groups in the gal actomannan matrix.