Preparation of Fe(III) ion surface-imprinted material for removing Fe(III) impurity from lanthanide ion solutions

For the purification of lanthanide, Fe3+ ion surface-imprinted material was prepared with sodium p-styrenesulfonate (SSS) as functional monomer and using a novel ion surface-imprinting technique of “synchronously graft polymerizing and imprinting”. In solution, the anionic monomers SSS are distributed around template Fe3+ ion by right of ion exchange action. The graft/cross-linking copolymerization of SSS and crosslinker N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) on SiO2 particles was initiated by a surface initiating system, obtaining Fe3+ ion surface-imprinted material IIP-PSSS/SiO2. It possesses special recognition selectivity for Fe3+ ion, and its selectivity coefficients for Fe3+ ion are 5.77 relative to La3+ ion and 5.69 relative to Pr3+ ion, respectively.