Characteristics of novel types of substituted cerium phosphates

The disodium, dilithium, dipotassium and distrontium forms of cerium phosph ate were prepared from their corresponding mono-forms. The chemical content of these inorganic ion exchangers have been characterized by inductively c oupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy. The ion exchange properties of these cati on exchangers, their chemical stability and selectivity for certain ions we re investigated. It was found that, by introducing different salts into the reaction mixture used to prepare cerium phosphate, robust cation exchange materials of reproducible composition with a good cation capacity, and suit able for column use, are produced. All the ion exchangers with the exceptio n of CeP (dipotassium) show excellent selectivity towards certain cations, thereby increasing the potential practical applications of these inorganic exchangers.