Xylitol Separation from a Polyol Mixture Using Lanthanide Ion-loaded Resins

Abstract

Xylitol separation from a polyol mixture of the byproducts from bioethanol production processes was performed by liquid chromatography using short columns packed with lanthanide ion-loaded ion-exchange resins. Xylitol was successfully separated with sufficiently high resolution using the adsorbents with medium rare-earth metal ions such as Nd 3+ and Sm 3+ . The adsorbents' specific nature is explained by the so-called "gadolinium break," which is known as a discontinuous behavior of thermodynamic parameters in the complexation of lanthanide series. From the observed behavior, the optimum lanthanide ions could be chosen to prepare the appropriate adsorbents for ligand-exchange chromatography of given polyol mixtures.