A Comparative Study on Characterization of Aluminium Tungstate and Surfactant-Based Aluminium Tungstate Cation-Exchangers: Analytical Applications for the Separation of Toxic Metal Ions

Two cation-exchange materials, aluminium tungstate (AT) and sodium dodecyl sulphate–aluminium tungstate (SDS–AT), were synthesized. Both samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The distribution coefficients for various metal ions on SDS–AT cation-exchange material were performed in different solvent systems. On the basis of distribution coefficient values, the SDS–AT cation-exchange material was found to be selective for the very toxic metal ion, Cr 3+ . The hybrid cation-exchange material offered a variety of technological opportunities for quantitative determination and separation of Cr 3+ from synthetic mixtures of metal ions. Some binary and ternary separations of metal ions; viz., Cd 2+ –Cr 3+ , Zn 2+ –Cr 3+ , Cu 2+ –Cr 3+ , Pb 2+ –Cr 3+ , Mg 2+ –Pb 2+ –Cr 3+ and Mg 2+ –Cd 2+ –Cr 3+ , were performed using a packed column of this material.