Materials and methods for the separation of copper ions and ferric iron in liquid solutions

A process for separating at least one transition metal ion species from iron (III) ions in a solution comprising at least one transition metal ion species, iron (III) ions and chloride ions said process comprising the steps of:

• 1) applying said solution to an extraction material comprising a matrix-polyamine base and a pyridine functional group, said matrix-polyamine base comprising the reaction product of a polyamine with a short chain hydrocarbylsilyl formed from first silanizing a matrix surface by hydrating said surface and reacting said hydrated surface with a short chain trifunctional silane having (a) hydrocarbon substituents containing 1–6 carbon atoms, (b) trifunctional leaving groups providing sites for covalently bonding said hydrocarbylsilyl to the said matrix surface through Si—O bonds, and (c) terminal leaving groups providing sites for covalently bonding said polyamine to said hydrocarbylsilyl through N-hydrocarbyl bonds;
• and secondly reacting said polyamine with said hydrocarbylsilyl formed from the silanization of said hydrated surface so as to form an aminohydrocarbyl polymer covalently bound to said matrix surface, said aminohydrocarbyl polymer having non-crosslinked amino groups multisite bound to said hydrocarbylsilyl, wherein said pyridine functional group binds and selectively extracts said at least one transition metal ions species from said solution;
• 2) purging said at least one transition metal ion species bound to said extraction material of chloride ions;
• and
• 3) stripping said bound transition metal ions from said extraction material.