Removal of trace quantities of nickel from solution

✍ Scribed by J. M. Randall; V. G. Randall; G. M. McDonald; R. N. Young; M. S. Masri

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 372 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/app.1979.070230307

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Chitosan, which is produced from the natural polymer chitin, is a much more efficient scavenger of nickel ion than other natural ion exchange materials tested. An industrial waste containing about 7 ppm Ni^2+^ and 10,000 ppm Na^+^ was reduced to less than 0.1 ppm Ni^2+^ by contact in a packed column of chitosan. Capacity of the chitosan substrate under these conditions was a little more than 1 meq/g. The substrate can be regenerated by contact with buffered NH~4~Cl at pH 10. The high sodium content of the nickel waste did not prevent sorption of Ni^2+^, but it apparently produced an interference with atomic absorption spectrophotometer analyses, giving a spurious reading of 0.8 ppm Ni^2+^ when the major nickel line at 232 nm was used for analysis.