Ion Size Exclusion Chromatohtaphy on Hypercrosslinked Polystyrene Sorbents as a Green Technology of Separating Mineral Elecyrolites

Inamuddin, A. Mohammad (eds.), Green Chromatographic Techniques, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7735-4_2, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 V. Davankov () · M. Tsyurupa · Z. Blinnikova Nesmeyanov-Institute of Organo-Element Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia e-mail: [email protected] Abstract The review considers a new preparative method of separating concentrated solutions of mineral electrolytes into individual components by size exclusion chromatography on neutral nanoporous hypercrosslinked polystyrene sorbents NanoNets (Purolite International Ltd., UK and USA). Basic principles of the method as well as factors determining the selectivity of separations are discussed. Unprecedented effect of a spontaneous increase in the concentration of separated components is explained on the basis of the concept of ideal separation process. The unprompted partial resolution of inorganic salts into parent acids and bases is a logical consequence of the size exclusion mechanism of ion separation; at the same time, this resolution proves the correctness of our understanding of the separation mechanism. The review discusses briefly previous works in this field and true reasons for well-known “acid retardation” process, the process of separating mineral acids from their salts on anion exchange resins under conditions excluding ion exchange.