Behaviour of the resins and drawbacks:

Problem:

What are the broad parameters on which the chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability and ion exchange behaviour of the resins depend?

What are the advantages if the particle size of the ion exchange resin bead is decreased? Is there any serious drawback in decreasing the particle size?

Answer:

The different types of stability and the exchange behaviour of the resin depend chiefly on structure and the degree of cross-linking of the matrix and on the nature and number of fixed ionic groups.

By decreasing the size of the bead, the time required for the equilibrium to be attained with the contacting solution materially decreases. Since the time required for the equilibrium is decreased, the efficiency of a given volume of resin increases. In other words, the volume of resin required to perform a specific operation decreases. It may be pointed out that by decreasing the particle size, the pressure drop in a column increases.