Cation Exchange Kinetics and Equilibria in Calcium Silicate Minerals - A New Family of Cation Exchangers

Newer materials for separating environmentally-undesirable ions from waste waters and nuclear wastes are needed to meet the stringent waste-treatment requirements. Such materials are also important in the recovery of valuable metals and minerals from solutions. This program is designed to evaluate the basic chemical properties and characteristics of a new class of ion- exchange materials developed by the principal investigators at the Materials Research Laboratory of the Pennsylvania State University. The new ion exchangers promise to have larger capacity than the currently-available ones and have the potential to be of use in a large number of separation processes.