Applications of ion exchange resins in environmental remediation

Abstract

The presence of various types of contaminants such as heavy metals, emerging organic contaminants, pesticides, organic waste, organic dyes, radionuclide's, fluorides, etc. cause water pollution. These pollutants are of concern to engineers, environmentalists and scientists. Due to the lack of freshwater, it is very important to recycle the wastewater after treatment to remove organic contaminates and heavy metal pollutants. Chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, filtration via membranes, flocculation, coagulation, flotation, and electrochemical techniques are just a few of the methods used to eliminate contaminants from wastewater. The most popular and effective among these is the ion exchange process. New generation hybrid materials, inorganic three‐dimensional matrices and synthetic organic resins are some examples of the different types of ion exchange resins. Most investigations have found that pseudo‐first and second order kinetic studies are important in the contaminant removal process. The isotherm model, which also incorporates the Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin Radushkevich, and Temkin equations, proved appropriate for most of the research. For an example, orgnic polymeric materials can maximum uptake capacity of 4.28 mmolg‐1 Cr(VI) and 1.97 mmolg‐1 As(V) respectively. The effectiveness of ion exchanger and its current trends in various environmental applications have been the main topics of this review article.