New bifunctional anion-exchange resins for nuclear waste treatment

Additional bifunctional anion-exchange resins have been designed, synthesized and evaluated for their ability to take up Pu(IV) from nitric acid solutions. Bifunctionality is achieved by adding a second anion-exchange site to the pyridine nitrogen (also an anion-exchange site) of the base poly(4-vinylpyridine) resin. Previous work focused on the effect of varying the chemical properties of the added site along with the length of an alkylene 'spacer' between the two sites. Here we examine four new 3- and 4-picolyl derivatives which maintain more rigidly defined geometries between the two nitrogen cationic sites. These materials, which have the two anion-exchange sites separated by three and four carbons, respectively, exhibit lower overall Pu(IV) distribution coefficients than the corresponding N-alkylenepyridium derivatives with more flexible spacers. Methylation of the second pyridium site results in a ca. 20% increase in the Pu(IV) distribution coefficients. (author)