Scavengers for the removal of impurities from arsine and phosphine

A process for removing oxidants, protic acids and compounds that can be metallated, from a hydride selected from the group consisting of arsine and phosphine, said process comprising (1) contacting the hydride with a scavenger comprising the reaction product of the hydride and a metallated macroreticulate polymer having a plurality of pendant functional groups or mixtures of functional groups having the general formula:

• ##STR3## where Ar is an aromatic hydrocarbon radical containing from one to three rings, R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl hydrocarbon radicals containing from 1 to 12 carbon atoms and M is a metal selected from the group consisting of sodium, potassium and lithium, said metallated macroreticulate polymer having within its pores a compound of M selected from the group consisting of a 1-12 carbon alkyl compound and a hydride, or mixtures thereof and (2) separating the hydride from the macroreticulate polymer scavenger.