Patent ID: 7311840

Claim:
A process for at least partially removing cations of one or more metals selected from the group consisting of cesium, strontium, lead, silver, transition metals, lanthanides and actinides from an acidic liquid containing said cations, comprising contacting said liquid with an ion exchange/sorbent material in an amount and for a time sufficient to at least reduce the concentration of said cations in said liquid, wherein said material has a structure selected from the group consisting of hexagonal tungsten bronze, pyrochlore and mixtures thereof, and is a metal oxide composition having the empirical formula (I) A x/n [B y M 1-y O 3+δ ] x .ZH 2 O (I) where M is one or more metals of Group Vb or VIb of the Periodic Table; A is a cation selected from the group consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, silver, ammonium, hydrogen and mixtures thereof; n is the charge on said cation A; B is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of W, Zr, Mo, V, Ti, Fe, Ce, Sb, Nb, Mn, Co, Cr, Fe, Ta, Sn and Cu, provided that M and B are different; x represents the quantity of framework charge; y is a number in the range of 0 to 0.5; Z is a number in the range >0 to 3; and 3+δ indicates the oxygen stoichiometry.