Abstract
Gelatin-Zr(IV) phosphate composite (GT/ZPC) was synthesized by sol–gel method. Different techniques viz. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray powdered diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used for the characterisation of GT/ZPC composite ion exchanger. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) of GT/ZPC was observed to be better (1.04 meq g
−1
) than its inorganic counterpart (0.64 meq g
−1
). The pH studies revealed the monofunctional nature of GT/ZPC with one inflection point. The distribution studies showed that the GT/ZPC was highly selective for Cd
2+
as compare to other metal ions. The environmental applicability of ion exchanger has been analysed for binary separations of metal ions using column method. Cd
2+
was effectively removed from synthetic mixture of metal ions (Zn
2+
, Pb
2+
, Ni
2+
, Co
2+
and Cu
2+
).