In thi
s wor
k, two hypercro
sslin
ked hydroxyl-rich polymer
s (HCP-P and HCP-R) were facilely prepared through a one-pot Friedel-Craft
s polymerization of phenol, re
sorcinol and formaldehyde dimethyl acetal, re
spectively. HCP-P and HCP-R were inve
stigated for their ability to
separate C
s+ from the
salt la
ke brine via ion-exchange reaction between C
s+ and O−Na+. The C
s+ ad
sorption i
sotherm
s of HCP-P and HCP-R follow the Langmuir model, and their ad
sorption capacitie
s reach 249.64 mg g−1 and 259.97 mg g−1 ,
surpa
ssing mo
st of commercial material
s li
ke AMP-PAN (81 mg g−1 ) and TAM-5 (191.8 mg g−1 ). The C
s+/K+
separation factor
s (S.F.) of HCP
s can reach 12.4 even in the pre
sence of high concentration
s of K+ (C(K+) /C(C
s+) = 712.5). Notably, HCP
s could retain more than 90% of the ad
sorption capacitie
s after 5
succe
ssive ad
sorption-de
sorption cycle
s. Be
side
s, X-ray photoelectron
spectro
scopy (XPS), FT-IR
spectra and TEM-EDS analy
si
s revealed the ion exchange mechani
sm of the C
s+ ad
sorption proce
ss. Thi
s wor
k demon
strated the excellent application potential of hypercro
sslin
ked
hydroxyl-rich polymer adsorbents in separating Cs+ from the salt lake brine.