文摘
Hybrid organic/inorganic sol-gel materials containing anencapsulated crown ether ligand were found to selectivelyremove 91.4 ± 1.3% of Sr2+ from a solution containingexcess of competing ions such as Ca2+. The crown etherligand, 1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane-7,16-bis(malonate) ligand (Na4oddm), with known highaffinity for Sr2+ was encapsulated in hydrophilic SiO2through a simple sol-gel process. Washing the Sr2+-loaded gel with acid or ethylenediaminetetraacetic aciddisodium salt recovered the Sr2+ from the sol-gel sorbentand regenerated the doped gel for subsequent Sr2+ intake.The approach reported here is a new alternative to theuse of crown ethers in metal ion separation through, forexample, solvent extraction or the use of sorbents containing chemically grafted crown ether ligands.