Radiation effects on self-diffusion in polystyrene ion exchangers

Kinetics of particle self-diffusion in styrene/divinylbenzene copolymer with functional groups -SO3- in Mn2+ form and -N+(CH3)3 in I- form was studied. Samples exposed to gamma radiation up to a dose of 0.35 MGy showed lower values of diffusion-coefficient at any given temperature than those of normal resins. Irradiation increased the energy of activation from 25.6 to 46.5 kJ mol-1 for the cation exchanger and decreased it from 43.4 to 25.9 kJ mol-1 for the anion exchanger. A measurement of the exchange capacity showed the I- form of the anion exchanger to be the most resistant to radiation, while the cation exchanger was uninfluenced up to a dose of 2.5 MGy. (orig.)