CATION EXCHANGE EQUILIBRIA WITH CHROMIUM (III) SPECIES BY STRONG ACID ION EXCHANGERS

Abstract

The exchange of hydrogen ions for trivalent chromium species with strongly acidic exchange resins has been investigated. The experiments comprised of systems with chromium chloride and basic chromium sulphate which are applied in leather tanning. Exchange equilibria at ambient temperature were investigated as a function of pH and total chromium concentration. Exchange strongly depends on the speciation in each system. As can be expected, with chromium chloride solutions a strong preference of chromium species occurs. However, a complete pattern is found for systems with basic chromium sulphate where chromium species are not fully preferred.