ABSTRACT
Inorganic ion exchangers are receiving increasing attention due to the fact that they are resistant to heat and radiation. Insoluble polybasic acid salts of multivalent metals have shown a great promise in preparative reproducibility, ion-exchange behavior, and both chemical and thermal stability. Acid salts of multivalent metals are acidic in nature and act as cation exchangers. They can, therefore, be titrated against an alkali, as usual, which gives the nature and the number of exchange sites present in the ion exchanger. Inorganic ion exchangers are selective for certain ions. High adsorption is observed in the case of antimonates. Titanium and stannic antimonates are selective for alkaline earths, while zirconium antimonate is selective for alkali metals. Chemical stability of synthetic inorganic ion exchangers plays an important role in their analytical applications. Knowledge of the thermal behavior of the wide number of known phases is, therefore, of basic importance for understanding their behavior either as ion exchangers or as catalysts.
