Investigation of radiolytic stability of polybenzimidazole based polymers for the recovery of Pu (IV), Am (III) and Eu (III) from nitric acid medium

Among these meta poly benzimidazole (m-PBI), para poly benzimidazole (p-PBI), pyridine based-m-PBI and alkylated-m-PBI polymers, p-PBI has shown better extraction behaviour for U (VI), Th(IV) and Pd (II) from simulated waste solutions. In this connection, the present study m-PBI, p-PBI and pyridine based-m-PBI were exposed to 150 KGy gamma irradiation. The irradiated polymeric resins were characterized using FT-IR, SEM and TGA analysis and compared with their unirradiated resins. The extraction behavior of Pu (IV), Am (III) and Eu (III) from nitric acid medium using these resins were studied. The distribution ratio values for the above metal ions using these irradiated and unirradiated resins were found to be almost similar; which illustrates that theses resins have high radiation and thermal stability. The overall results reveal that p-PBI exhibits higher distribution ratio values compared to other resins. Due to its structural arrangement of the polymer linkage, p-PBI is a potential applicant for the recovery of Pu (IV), Am (III) and Eu (III)