Chemical derivatization of Resorcinol-Formaldehyde resin leading to enhanced chemical/oxidative stability of the resin

Resorcinol-Formaldehyde (R-F) resin is a candidate regenerable ion-exchange resin for removal of radioactive cesium from highly alkaline waste tank supernates at both the Hanford and Savannah River sites. Our previous investigations into the structure/function relationships of R-F resin have shown that the R-F resin undergoes facile oxidation to produce, para-bisquinones, with loss of ion-exchange sites, hence lowered performance of the resin for cesium ion-exchange. Our studies have also shown that Phenol-Formaldehyde (P-F) resin has a substantially lower capacity compared to R-F resin, based on predicted values, because over half the ion-exchange sites of the P-F resin undergo etherification during the standard synthetic procedures used for preparation of these resins. In this report, we present our studies into rational synthetic solutions to enhance the chemical/oxidative stability of R-F resin.