Ion binding studies of polysulfonates

The purpose was the development of a different method estimating the selectivity coefficients of alkali metal ions on the two anionic polysulfonates, polystyrene sulfonates (NaPSS), and polyethylene sulfonates (NaPES). Results showed that the selectivity coefficients are consistently higher in the NaPES solutions at all levels of concentration. This means that the binding of barium ions is stronger in the NaPES solutions than that in NaPSS solutions. There are two reasons for this difference. The first is the configuration effect of the phenyl groups in NaPSS and the second is the water structure effect.