Organic-Inorganic Ion-Exchange in Cellulosic Fiber Matrices

Abstract

Previous work on the topic of ion-exchange with cellulosic fiber matrices has been limited as well as confined to the interactions of metal cations, from metal salts. The findings of this earlier work were that often the adsorption of metal cations followed the Donnan theory. Also, it was found that the adsorption process, for well-mixed systems was very rapid, often within 2 minutes, and adhered to the Intraparticle Diffusion Model. The research detailed in this dissertation expands upon this earlier research by investigating the both organic-inorganic and organic-organic ion-exchange in cellulosic fiber matrices. It was found that with smaller organic cations, the ion-exchange behavior followed the Donnan model, but larger molecules did not; likely due to Van der Waals forces. Also, it was found that the kinetics of adsoption of larger organic cations was far slower, taking several hours, and, as opposed to metal cations, adhered to the Convective Mass-Transfer model. This work was untilized in commercial product development, from which a patent was published.