Kinetic investigation for sorption of europium and samarium from aqueous solution using resorcinol-formaldehyde polymeric resin

Kinetic study for Eu3+ and Sm3+ sorption on resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) polymeric material has been performed using batch method. The sorption process of Eu3+ and Sm3+ was carried out at different contact time, pH of medium, initial ion concentration and temperature. The experimental data indicated that, RF could be used as an efficient sorbent for Eu3+ and Sm3+. The sorption kinetic for Eu3+ and Sm3+ onto RF polymeric resin takes about 1 h to reach equilibrium which is considered as a fast kinetic process. Sorption results were fitted using different kinetic models such as pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion models. The results indicated that the sorption of both Eu3+ and Sm3+ onto RF resin is highly fit with the pseudo-second order model. Moreover, the obtained results showed that the maximum separation factor between Eu3+ and Sm3+ was obtained at pH 3. Therefore, RF resin is considered as a promising material for sorption of Eu3+ and Sm3+ form aqueous solution. (author)