Degradation of Ion Exchange Resin by Vanadium-Containing Water

Abstract

Irreversible swelling of strongly acidic cation exchange resins (SAC) had been observed when ground water in a volcanic zone was used as raw water for ion-exchange pure water production facilities.Vanadium has been presumed to act as an oxidative substance to the SAC resin, with the analysis of the ground water. It was confirmed that hydroxyl radicals were generated when the metavanadate anions were present in strong a sulfuric acidic solution, and the amount of generated radicals changed with the molar ratio of metavanadate to sulfuric acid. When an ammonium vanadate solution was passed through a resin layer of normal cross-linked type SAC, eluted polystyrene sulfonic acids were detected in the treated water. However, highly cross-linked SAC resin is resistive to oxidative degradation in vanadate containing water.