Manual for Ion Exchange Column

Manual for Ion Exchange Column

Start up –

When starting the system up, it is very important to make sure that all the air is out of the line that goes into the pump. Also, make sure that the setting of the pump (on the little lever near the handle) is low. You should begin by running distilled water through the system. Learn what the valves do in this step.

The next step is to calibrate the pump and the spectrophotometer. To calibrate the pump, pick at least 7, ideally 10, different flow settings, get a stopwatch, and get a 10 mL graduated cylinder. Take measurements of the flow for about 10 seconds at each setting. To calibrate the spectrophotometer, mix solutions of known molarity and pass them through the system. This gives you a relationship between absorbance and actual molarity of the solution. When setting up the computer program, make sure you blank the spectrophotometer before you start the SpectroPro software. It will have trouble working otherwise.

Run Time –

When recording data, be sure to record the flowrate used, the molarity of the solution, and the length of the bed area. Having the bed area will allow you to calculate the packing factor later on.

At low feed concentrations, it takes a long time for the CuSO4 solution to break through, so make sure you mix at least 500 mL of stock solution, especially for concentrations lower than 0.1 M. 200 mL of solution is fine for runs of 0.1 M and above. At low flowrates (< 0.025 M), it is going to take a long time, so make sure to plan experiments with molarities that are not too low.

Clean Up –

First stop collecting data in the software program. Then turn pump off and clean the packed column with distilled water. Throw away the resin in the waste container and wash with distilled water. Once the column is clean put the empty column back on and run distilled water through the column to clean the tubing. Keep looking at the spectrophotometer readings to know when the running solution is free of copper sulfate. Do the same bypassing the column to clean this tubbing. Turn off pump. Dispose all wastes in properly labeled waste container and take the container to the hazardous waste tray in the polymerization station.