Sol-gel synthesis, physico-chemical characterization and investigations on ion exchange performance of atypical conducting polymer integrated composite cation exchangers

Herein, an effective sol-gel strategy was utilized for the synthesis of atypical Polypyrrole/EDTA-Zirconium(IV) phosphate (PYZP) and Polypyrrole/EDTA-Zirconium(IV) iodate (PYZI) composite cation exchangers. The structural aspects, surface morphology, elemental composition and thermal constancy of the aforementioned composite cation exchangers were scrutinized through UV-Visible, FT-IR, XRD, SEM with EDAX, TEM and TGA studies. As-prepared conducting polymeric composite materials divulged not only excellent ion exchange capacity but also better thermal stability, electrical conductivity and notable selectivity toward Pb(II) ions as compared to their individual inorganic moieties. The improvement in ion exchange capacities (IEC) for distinct alkali metal ions of PYZP composite cation exchanger were Li+, 2.89; Na+, 3.15; K+, 3.34 meq/g and PYZI composite cation exchanger were Li+, 2.60; Na+, 2.86; K+, 3.21 meq/g, separately. It was concluded that PYZP composite acts as an excellent cation exchanger compared to PYZI composite due to the presence of ionogenic phosphate anions. The partition competency of the composite materials toward distinct metal ions in diverse solvent systems exposed the separation potentials of metal ions of systematic prominence from a specified binary combinations encompassing Cd(II) – Pb(II), Hg(II) – Pb(II), Cu(II) – Pb(II), Zn(II) – Pb(II), Ni(II) – Pb(II) and Fe(III) – Pb(II) metal ions. Subsequently, the conducting competency was examined through AC-Impedance spectroscopy.