Sulfonation of Crosslinked Polystyrene

Preparation of a Cation Exchanger by Sulfonation of Crosslinked Polystyrene 

Safety precautions More this experiment is carried out, Sect. 2.2.5 must be read as well as the material safety data sheets (MSDS) for all chemicals and products used. 

Insoluble polystyrene crosslinked with divinylbenzene can easily be converted by sulfonation to a usable ion exchanger. For this purpose a mixture of 0.2 g of silver sulfate and 150 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid are heated to 80-90 °C in a 500 ml threenecked flask fitted with stirrer, reflux condenser, and thermometer. 20 g of a bead polymer of styrene and divinylbenzene (see Example 3-41) are then introduced with stirring the temperature climbs spontaneously to 100-105 °C.The mixture is maintained at 100 C for 3 h,then cooled to room temperature and allowed to stand for some hours. Next the contents of the flask are poured into a 11 conical flask that contains about 500 ml of 50% sulfuric acid. After cooling, the mixture is diluted with distilled water, and the gold-brown colored beads are filtered off on a sintered glass filter and washed copiously with water. 

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