Soils can be thought of as storehouses for plant nutrients.

Many nutrients, such as calcium and

magnesium, may be supplied to plants solely from reserves held in the soil. Others like
potassium are added regularly to soils as fertilizer for the purpose of being withdrawn as needed
by crops. The relative ability of soils to store one particular group of nutrients, the cations, is
referred to as cation exchange capacity or CEC.

Soils are composed of a mixture of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. Both the clay and organic
matter particles have a net negative charge. Thus, these negatively-charged soil particles will
attract and hold positively-charged particles, much like the opposite poles of a magnet attract
each other. By the same token, they will repel other negatively-charged particles, as like poles of
a magnet repel each other.

Forms of Nutrient Elements in Soils

Elements having an electrical charge are called ions. Positively-charged ions are cations;
negatively-charged ones are anions.

The most common soil cations (including their chemical symbol and charge) are: calcium (Ca++),
magnesium (Mg++), potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), hydrogen (H+) and sodium (Na+).
Notice that some cations have more than one positive charge.

Common soil anions (with their symbol and charge) include: chlorine (Cl-), nitrate (NO3-),
sulfate (S04=) and phosphate (PO43-). Note also that anions can have more than one negative
charge and may be combinations of elements with oxygen.

Defining Cation Exchange Capacity

Cations held on the clay and organic matter particles in soils can be replaced by other cations;
thus, they are exchangeable. For instance, potassium can be replaced by cations such as calcium
or hydrogen, and vice versa.

The total number of cations a soil can hold--or its total negative charge--is the soil's cation
exchange capacity. The higher the CEC, the higher the negative charge and the more cations that
can be held.

CEC is measured in millequivalents per 100 grams of soil (meq/100g). A meq is the number of
ions which total a specific quantity of electrical charges. In the case of potassium (K+), for
example, a meq of K ions is approximately 6 x 1020 positive charges. With calcium, on the other
hand, a meq of Ca++ is also 6 x 1020 positive charges, but only 3 x 1020 ions because each Ca ion
has two positive charges.

Following are the common soil nutrient cations and the amounts in pounds per acre that equal 1
meq/100g:

Calcium (Ca++) - 400 lb./acre

 Magnesium (Mg++) - 240 lb./acre
Potassium (K+) 780 lb./acre
Ammonium (NH4+) - 360 lb./acre

Measuring Cation Exchange Capacity

Since a soil's CEC comes from the clay and organic matter present, it can be estimated from soil
texture and color. Table 1 lists some soil groups based on color and texture, representative soil
series in each group, and common CEC value measures on these soils.

Table 1. Normal Range of CEC Values for Common Color/Texture Soil

Groups.

CEC in
Soil groups Examples meg/100g
-----------------------------------------------
Light colored sands Plainfield 3-5
Bloomfield

Dark colored sands Maumee 10-20

Gilford

Light colored loams and Clermont-Miami 10-20

silt loams Miami

Dark colored loams and Sidell 15-25

silt loams Gennesee

Dark colored silty clay Pewamo 30-40

loams and silty clays Hoytville

Organic soils Carlisle muck 50-100

-------------------------------------------------
Cation exchange capacity is usually measured in soil testing labs by one of two methods. The
direct method is to replace the normal mixture of cations on the exchange sites with a single
cation such as ammonium (NH4+), to replace that exchangeable NH4+ with another cation, and
then to measure the amount of NH4+ exchanged (which was how much the soil had held).

More commonly. the soil testing labs estimate CEC by summing the calcium, magnesium and
potassium measured in the soil testing procedure with an estimate of exchangeable hydrogen
obtained from the buffer pH. Generally, CEC values arrived at by this summation method will be
slightly lower than those obtained by direct measures.

Buffer Capacity and Percent Base Saturation

Cations on the soil's exchange sites serve as a source of resupply for those in soil water which
were removed by plant roots or lost through leaching. The higher the CEC, the more cations
which can be supplied. This is called the soil's buffer capacity.
Cations can be classified as either acidic (acid- forming) or basic. The common acidic cations are
hydrogen and aluminum; common basic ones are calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium.
The proportion of acids and bases on the CEC is called the percent base saturation and can be
calculated as follows:

Total meq of bases on exchange sites

Pct. base =(i.e., meq Ca ++ meq Mg++ + meq K+)

saturation ------------------------------- x 100
Cation exchange capacity

The concept of base saturation is important, because the relative proportion of acids and bases on
the exchange sites determines a soil's pH. As the number of Ca++ and Mg++ions decreases and the
number of H+ and Al+++ions increases, the pH drops. Adding limestone replaces acidic hydrogen
and aluminum cations with basic calcium and magnesium cations, which increases the base
saturation and raises the pH.

In the case of Midwestern soils, the actual mix of cations found on the exchange sites can vary
markedly. On most, however, Ca++ and Mg++ are the dominant basic cations and are in greater
concentrations than K+. Normally, very little sodium is found in Midwestern soils.

Relationship Between CEC and Fertilization Practices

Recommended liming and fertilization practices will vary for soils with widely differing cation
exchange capacities. For instance, soils having a high CEC and high buffer capacity change pH
much more slowly under normal management than low-CEC soils. Therefore, high-CEC soils
generally do not need to be limed as frequently as low-CEC soils; but when they do become acid
and require liming, higher lime rates are needed to reach optimum pH.

CEC can also influence when and how often nitrogen and potassium fertilizers can be applied.
On low-CEC soils (less than 5 meg/20000g), for example, some leaching of cations can occur.
Fall applications of ammonium N and potassium on these soils could result in some leaching
below the root zone, particularly in the case of sandy soils with low-CEC subsoils. Thus, spring
fertilizer application may mean improved production efficiency. Also, multi-year potash
applications are not recommended on low-CEC soils.

Higher-CEC soils (greater than 10 meg/100g), on the other hand, experience little cation
leaching, thus making fall application of N and K a realistic alternative. Applying potassium for
two crops can also be done effectively on these soils. Thus, other factors such as drainage will
have a greater effect on the fertility management practices used on high- CEC soils.

Summary

The cation exchange capacity of a soil determines the number of positively-charged ions cations-
that the soil can hold. This, in turn, can have a significant effect on the fertility management of
the soil.
The adsorption capacity is the maximum metal quantity uptaken by 1 g of resin.

Maybe you can find some information from the following link:

Separation and preconcentration of copper in environmental samples on Amberlite XAD-8 resin after
complexation with a carbothioamide derivative

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-40422013000600016

The Langmuir isotherm is a commonly used model to calculate the adsorption capacity of an
adsorbate, as described by the following equation:

(Ce/qe)=(Ce/qmax)+(1/bqmax)

where qe (mg g - 1) is the amount of metal adsorbed per unit weight of the resin at equilibrium, Ce
(mg L - 1) is the equilibrium metal ion concentration in an aqueous solution, qmax (mg g - 1) and b
(L mg - 1) are the Langmuir constants related to the adsorption capacity and free energy or net
enthalpy of adsorption, respectively. The relationship between Ce/qe versus Ce is linear, and the
constants qmax and b are evaluated from the slope and intercept of the linear plot, respectively
 Ion exchange capacity
Introduction
Ion exchange is a cyclic process: ions are loaded to resins, the resins get progressively exhausted, and
when there is no place to load more ions, the loading phase is interrupted, and the resins must be
regenerated.

Ion exchange capacity indicates the quantity of ions loaded to the resin.

Definitions
Total capacity
The total capacity of a resin sample is the number of ion exchange sites. See details at the end of
the page. Typical capacity values are given below.

In other words, the total capacity is the maximum theoretical quantity of ions that the resin can load.

Operating capacity
Also called useful capacity, it is the number of ion exchange sites where exchange has really
taken place during the loading run. It is also the number of resin charges — not the number of ions
because some ions have more than one charge — picked up by the resin in one cycle.

In other words, the operating capacity is the actual quantity of ions loaded on the resin between
regenerations. It depends on several parameters.

The ion exchange capacity is expressed as eq/L (equivalents per litre of resin).
The unit of mole should be avoided altogether in ion exchange, as it does not take valence into account
and brings only confusion. For reference: 1 eq = 1 mole / valence.

The operating capacity is always smaller than the total capacity. We will see why.

Zone of exchange
Ideal case

Start of the run Middle of the run End of the run

In an ideal case, we would start with a fully regenerated resin. During the exhaustion run, the exchange
front would be absolutely flat, meaning that each infinitesimal resin layer would be instantaneously
converted from regenerated to exhausted, capturing the incoming ions with an infinite speed of exchange.
This flat front would move down the column as more ions are removed from water. At some point, the flat
front would reach the bottom of the column, and the resin would then be totally exhausted. In such a case,
the operating capacity would be equal to the total capacity of the resin. This case does not exist in
practice, as the exchange front is not flat and the resin is not always fully regenerated at the beginning of
the run.

In the real world, there are two cases:

Case 1: the resin is totally regenerated at the beginning of the run (WAC & WBA)

Start of the run Middle of the run End of the run

At the start of the run, the resin is totally regenerated. In the course of the loading run, the top layers of
the bed get progressively exhausted. However, the exchange reaction is not infinitely fast, as the ions must
find their way to available sites inside each resin bead. Therefore, some ions find their way to lower levels
of the bed before the layers above are totally exhausted. The area between fully regenerated and fully
exhausted resin is called exchange zone or reaction zone, as shown in the pictures.
At some stage, the ions begin to "leak" iinto the treated water. The loading run is stopped at the time the
concentration of this ion leakage reaches a preset value. This is called the endpoint of the run. At this
stage, the ion exchange resin is not fully exhausted, so the operating capacity is smaller than the total
capacity.
The operating capacity is, as defined above, the difference between the exhausted resin at the start and at
the end of the run. The behaviour shown here is typical of weakly acidic and weakly basic ion exchange
resins, that can be fully regenerated with a minimum amount of regenerant, close to the stoichiometric
value. A stoichimetric regenerant quantity is the quantity of chemical equivalents exactly equal to the ionic
load during the exchange cycle. In practice, weak resins are regenerated with a small excess over the
stoichiometric quantity.

The typical operating capacity of a weak base anion exchange resin is 70 to 90 % of the total capacity. For
weak acid cation resin, operating capacity depends on several parameters, so there is no such simple
estimate. However, WAC resins having a high total capacity and being regenerated almost
stoichiometrically, i.e. without an excess (see regenerant ratio), their use is very helpful for waters
containing a high concentration of alkalinity and hardness.

Case 2: the resin is partially exhausted at the beginning of the run (SAC & SBA)

Start of the run Middle of the run End of the run

This second case is typical of strongly acidic and strongly basic resins, which are more difficult to
regenerate, so that an excess of regenerant chemical must be passed through the resin bed. Even so, it is
not economical to regenerate the resin totally, which would mean a very high regenerant dosage, so in
practice the resin bed is only partially regenerated. The pictures here indicate a resin bed with downflow
loading and upflow regeneration. See the page about regeneration details.

Typically the operating capacity of SAC and SBA resins is 40 to 60 % of their total capacity.
Case 2b: co-flow regenerated resins

Start of the run Middle of the run End of the run

The feed water during the exhaustion run and the regeneration solution are both flowing from top to
bottom. As a result, the top layers of the resin bed are well regenerated at the start of the run, but the
bottom of the bed is not. During the exhaustion run, a fraction of the ions from the feed not removed
during regeneration leak into the treated water, as shown in the regeneration page.

For example, if the resin is regenerated with acid, some of the H ions released by the removal of Na ions
+ +

from the feed wander down the column and displace a few of the Na ions left at the bottom after the
+

previous regeneration. The sodium leakage is thus much higher than with reverse flow regeneration.

Ion exchange kinetics

Weak acid and weak base resins are sensitive to flow rate. When the flow rate increases, the
reaction zone becomes longer.

Low flow rate: High flow rate:

the reaction zone is short the reaction zone is long
 When the reaction zone is short, the achievable operating capacity is higher, because a higher fraction of
the total capacity can be used before the leakage reaches its endpoint.

SAC and SBA resins are less sensitive to flow rate.

Fine resins have generally higher kinetics; this is especially true for WAC and WBA resins. The reason is a
shorter path for the ions to travel inside the resin beads.

Parameters affecting operating capacity

The operating capacity depends on a number of process variables including:

 Concentration and type of ions to be adsorbed

 Service flow rate
 Temperature
 Type, concentration and quantity of regenerant
 Type of regeneration process (co-flow, reverse flow...)
 Bed depth (reverse flow regeneration only)
 Particle size of the ion exchange resins
The ion exchange resin manufacturers publish performance data allowing users to calculate the
operating capacity of their resins under the most common conditions of use. Several of them also
have computer programs to make basic designs for ion exchange systems. I have developed such a
program for Rohm and Haas under the name of IXCalc.

Measurement of the total capacity

The total capacity of a resin sample is measured by titration and expressed in eq/L. The
procedure involves a volume measurement and must be carried out under strict conditions. As the
volume changes according to the ionic form of the resin — some ions have a higher mass and their
volume is different from others — the ionic form of measurement must always be reported.

The total capacity must also be reported as dry weight capacity after drying of the resin sample. The dry
weight capacity measures the number of active groups per kg of dry resin, i.e. without the moisture
content. It is expressed in eq/kg. Mention of the ionic form is critical here as well, as different ions have
different masses.

Dry weight capacity is important for two different purposes:

1. For new resins, it gives information about the efficiency of the activation process: for instance, if every
aromatic ring has been sulphonated in a strongly acidic resin, the theoretical maximum total dry weight
capacity is about 5.5 eq/kg in H form.
+

2. For used resins, it gives information about a possible fouling: a fouled resin sample contains foreign
matter, which increases the dry weight, and as a consequence the dry weight capacity (number of active
groups per kg of dry matter) decreases, even if no functional group has been lost.

Operating capacity in practice

We have seen that the operating capacity of an ion exchange resin is a fraction of the total
capacity. It is also expressed in eq/L (equivalents per litre of resin) and indicates the quantity of
ions (more precisely the number of charges) that can be exchanged during a cycle.

The following table shows typical total and operating capacity values for the common resins (all values in
eq/L, most common value in brackets):
Resin type* Total capacity Operating capacity

WAC 3.7 to 4.5 [4.2] 1.0 to 3.5

SAC 1.7 to 2.2 [2.0] 0.6 to 1.7

WBA 1.1 to 1.7 [1.3] 0.8 to 1.3

SBA 0.9 to 1.4 [1.2] 0.4 to 0.9

* See abbreviations and resin types

Let's consider for example a strongly acidic cation exchange resin (SAC) used for softening, and let's
assume the water to be treated has a hardness concentration of 4.4 meq/L and the resin, under specific
operating conditions, has an operating capacity of 1.1 eq/L, which is 1100 meq/L.

Each litre of ion exchange resin will thus be able to treat 1100 / 4.4 = 250 litres of the hard water before
having to be regenerated. In ion exchange jargon, this means that the throughput is 250 bed volumes. If
the water hardness is higher, the throughput will be less, and vice-versa. See also concentration and
capacity units.

Experimental calculation of the operating capacity

Softening example
You have an ion exchange column containing a volume V (litres) of SAC(Na) resin. The water you
are treating contains a concentration C of hardness expressed in meq/L. To measure and calculate
the operating capacity, you must measure continuously the residual hardness coming out of the
column, or take a sample every few minutes (say 5 to 15 min) and analyse its hardness. Plotting
the individual residual hardness values should produce the following red curve.
The cycle is stopped when the residual hardness reaches the endpoint value. At this point, a
volume Q of soft water has been produced. The quantity R of hardness ions removed by the resin
is (in meq):

R=Q·C

And the operating capacity of your column is:

Cap = Q · C / V (meq/L)

Example: your column holds V = 2000 L of resin (Amberjet 1000 Na), your feed water contains C = 6
meq/L of hardness, your throughput Q is 360 m = 360'000 L, so the operating capacity of the column is
3

Cap = (360'000 · 6) / 2000 = 1080 meq/L = 1.08 eq/L

Exactly the same calculation would apply to a nitrate removal column using a nitrate-selective SBA resin,
where the nitrate concentration would be used instead of hardness.

Demineralisation
The situation here is more complicated, because you have at least two resin types (cation and
anion exchangers), and sometimes three or four (weak and strong). If you have two resins only,
the cation resin profile is similar to the above graph, but you would use the conductivity (after the
anion column) as a control parameter instead of hardness. To calculate the cation resin capacity,
you would need the total cation concentration in the feed water, and for the anion resin you
would need the anion concentration after degasifier (if any) making sure to add silica and free CO 2

to the anions.

Important remark
The test should not be done with a "virgin" resin. A few cycles (typically two or three) must be
performed before the system reaches an equilibrium. The capacity of the first run (called cycle
zero) is higher than that obtained in the subsequent cycles, because in this first run the resin is
totally regenerated, which is not the case later.

Suggestions for a basic laboratory setup and operating conditions are shown here.
Ion exchange

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Charge exchange)

Jump to navigation

Jump to search

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline
citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2016) (Learn
how and when to remove this template message)

Water desalination

Methods

Distillation

Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF)

Multiple-effect distillation (MED)

Vapor-compression (VC)

Ion exchange

Membrane processes

Electrodialysis reversal (EDR)

Reverse osmosis (RO)

Nanofiltration (NF)

Membrane distillation (MD)

Forward osmosis (FO)

Freezing desalination

Geothermal desalination

Solar desalination

Solar humidification–dehumidification (HDH)

Multiple-effect humidification (MEH)

Seawater greenhouse

Methane hydrate crystallization

High grade water recycling

Wave-powered desalination

Ion exchanger

Ion-exchange resin beads

Ion-exchange column used for protein purification

Ion exchange is an exchange of ions between two electrolytes or between an electrolyte solution and a
complex. In most cases the term is used to denote the processes of purification, separation, and
decontamination of aqueous and other ion-containing solutions with solid polymeric or mineralic "ion
exchangers".

Typical ion exchangers are ion-exchange resins (functionalized porous or gel polymer), zeolites,
montmorillonite, clay, and soil humus. Ion exchangers are either cation exchangers, which exchange
positively charged ions (cations), or anion exchangers, which exchange negatively charged ions (anions).
There are also amphoteric exchangers that are able to exchange both cations and anions
simultaneously. However, the simultaneous exchange of cations and anions can be more efficiently
performed in mixed beds, which contain a mixture of anion- and cation-exchange resins, or passing the
treated solution through several different ion-exchange materials.

Ion exchanges can be unselective or have binding preferences for certain ions or classes of ions,
depending on their chemical structure. This can be dependent on the size of the ions, their charge, or
their structure. Typical examples of ions that can bind to ion exchangers are:

H+ (proton) and OH− (hydroxide).

Singly charged monatomic ions like Na+, K+, and Cl−.

Doubly charged monatomic ions like Ca2+ and Mg2+.

Polyatomic inorganic ions like SO42− and PO43−.

Organic bases, usually molecules containing the amine functional group −NR2H+.

Organic acids, often molecules containing −COO− (carboxylic acid) functional groups.
Biomolecules that can be ionized: amino acids, peptides, proteins, etc.

Along with absorption and adsorption, ion exchange is a form of sorption.

Ion exchange is a reversible process, and the ion exchanger can be regenerated or loaded with desirable
ions by washing with an excess of these ions.

Contents

Applications

1.1

Other applications

Regenerating wasted water

See also

References

External links

Applications[edit]

Ion exchange is widely used in the food and beverage industry, hydrometallurgy, metals finishing,
chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical technology, sugar and sweetener production, ground- and
potable-water treatment, nuclear, softening and industrial water treatment, semiconductor, power, and
many other industries..

A typical example of application is preparation of high-purity water for power engineering, electronic
and nuclear industries; i.e. polymeric or mineralic insoluble ion exchangers are widely used for water
softening, water purification, water decontamination, etc.

Ion exchange is a method widely used in household (laundry detergents and water filters) to produce
soft water. This is accomplished by exchanging calcium Ca2+ and magnesium Mg2+ cations against Na+
or H+ cations (see water softening). Another application for ion exchange in domestic water treatment is
the removal of nitrate and natural organic matter.

Industrial and analytical ion-exchange chromatography is another area to be mentioned. Ion-exchange

chromatography is a chromatographical method that is widely used for chemical analysis and separation
of ions. For example, in biochemistry it is widely used to separate charged molecules such as proteins.
An important area of the application is extraction and purification of biologically produced substances
such as proteins (amino acids) and DNA/RNA.

Ion-exchange processes are used to separate and purify metals, including separating uranium from
plutonium and the other actinides, including thorium, neptunium, and americium. This process is also
used to separate the lanthanides, such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium, europium,
and ytterbium, from each other. The separation of neodymium and praseodymium was a particularly
difficult one, and those were formerly thought to be just one element didymium - but that is an alloy of
the two.

There are two series of rare-earth metals, the lanthanides and the actinides, both of whose families all
have very similar chemical and physical properties. Using methods developed by Frank Spedding in the
1940s, ion exchange processes were formerly the only practical way to separate them in large
quantities, until the development of the "solvent extraction" techniques that can be scaled up
enormously..

A very important case of ion-exchange is the PUREX process (Plutonium-URanium Extraction Process),
which is used to separate the plutonium-239 and the uranium from americium, curium, neptunium, the
radioactive fission products that come from nuclear reactors. Thus the waste products can be separated
out for disposal. Next, the plutonium and uranium are available for making nuclear-energy materials,
such as new reactor fuel and nuclear weapons.

The ion-exchange process is also used to separate other sets of very similar chemical elements, such as
zirconium and hafnium, which is also very important for the nuclear industry. Physically, zirconium is
practically transparent to free neutrons, used in building nuclear reactors, but hafnium is a very strong
absorber of neutrons, used in reactor control rods. Thus, ion-exchange is used in nuclear reprocessing
and the treatment of radioactive waste.

Ion-exchange resins in the form of thin membranes are also used in chloralkali process, fuel cells, and
vanadium redox batteries.

Large cation/anion ion exchangers used in water purification of boiler feedwater[1]

Ion exchange can also be used to remove hardness from water by exchanging calcium and magnesium
ions for sodium ions in an ion-exchange column. Liquid-phase (aqueous) ion-exchange desalination has
been demonstrated.[2] In this technique anions and cations in salt water are exchanged for carbonate
anions and calcium cations respectively using electrophoresis. Calcium and carbonate ions then react to
form calcium carbonate, which then precipitates, leaving behind fresh water. The desalination occurs at
ambient temperature and pressure and requires no membranes or solid ion exchangers. The theoretical
energy efficiency of this method is on par with electrodialysis and reverse osmosis.

Other applications[edit]

In soil science, cation-exchange capacity is the ion-exchange capacity of soil for positively charged ions.
Soils can be considered as natural weak cation exchangers.
In pollution remediation and geotechnical engineering, ion-exchange capacity determines the swelling
capacity of swelling or expansive clay such as montmorillonite, which can be used to "capture"
pollutants and charged ions.

In planar waveguide manufacturing, ion exchange is used to create the guiding layer of higher index of
refraction.

Dealkalization, removal of alkali ions from a glass surface.

Chemically strengthened glass, produced by exchanging K+ for Na+ in soda glass surfaces using KNO3
melts.

Regenerating wasted water[edit]

Most ion-exchange systems contain containers of ion-exchange resin that are operated on a cyclic basis.

During the filtration process, water flows through the resin container until the resin is considered
exhausted. That happened only when water leaving the exchanger contains more than the desired
maximal concentration of the ions being removed. Resin is then regenerated by sequentially
backwashing the resin bed to remove accumulated solids, flushing removed ions from the resin with a
concentrated solution of replacement ions, and rinsing the flushing solution from the resin. Production
of backwash, flushing, and rinsing wastewater during regeneration of ion-exchange media limits the
usefulness of ion exchange for wastewater treatment.[3]

Water softeners are usually regenerated with brine containing 10% sodium chloride.[4] Aside from the
soluble chloride salts of divalent cations removed from the softened water, softener regeneration
wastewater contains the unused 50 – 70% of the sodium chloride regeneration flushing brine required
to reverse ion-exchange resin equilibria. Deionizing resin regeneration with sulfuric acid and sodium
hydroxide is approximately 20–40% efficient. Neutralized deionizer regeneration wastewater contains
all of the removed ions plus 2.5–5 times their equivalent concentration as sodium sulfate.[5]
Managing Presentation Nerves

Leading up to the presentation

Prepare
It is essential to always be well prepared and well-rehearsed in
order to feel confident.

Do not fixate on the presentation delivery at the expense of good preparation.

Spend time preparing, good preparation, knowing your subject well, and
knowing what you are going to say and how you are going to say it, will boost
your confidence and help reduce your nerves.

Think of a presentation like an iceberg: what your audience sees - the delivery -
is a small percentage of the whole. What goes on out of sight, the planning and
preparation, should make up the bulk of the work.

Read our Presentation Skills pages for tips and advice on how to best prepare for
your presentation, starting with: What is a Presentation?

Rehearse
Practice your presentation; rehearse to family, friends or just in front of a mirror. Listen to any feedback.
Check your timings, speak slowly and think about the types of questions that your audience may have.

If possible visit the presentation venue before the event to see the room layout and check what facilities
are available. This will help ensure that everything runs smoothly on the day and help you visualise
giving your presentation, which can help reduce feelings of nervousness.

Keep Your Mind and Body Healthy

Nervousness can be heightened if you're not feeling 100%.
Avoid alcohol the night before and on the day of your presentation. Reduce or avoid your caffeine intake
from coffee, tea and other sources.

Try to engage in some exercise the day before your presentation. This will not only release endorphins,
which make you feel better, but exercise will also make it more likely that you'll sleep well and feel more
refreshed on the day of your presentation. See our pages The Importance of Exercise and The
Importance of Sleep for more information.

Eat healthy. If you're feeling nervous then you may not feel like eating. However eating something
healthy, fruit and vegetables are always good choices, will make you feel better and give you the energy
you need to get through presentation day.

Immediately before the presentation

When you feel nervous immediately before a presentation, the following strategies
and exercises should help you:

Practice Deep Breathing

Adrenalin causes your breathing to shallow. By deliberately breathing deeply, your brain will get the
oxygen it needs and the slower pace will trick your body into believing you are calmer. This also helps
with voice quivers, which can occur when your breathing is shallow and irregular.

Drink Water
Adrenalin can cause a dry mouth, which in turn leads to getting tongue-tied. Have a glass or bottle of
water handy and take sips before you start your presentation and occasionally during your presentation,
especially when you wish to pause or emphasize a point. Take care not to take large gulps of water.

Chew Gum
Chewing gum before a presentation may help you to feel more relaxed. Research has shown that the act
of chewing can increase your alertness and help to reduce anxiety. It is usually best to get rid of the gum
when you start your presentation.

Use Visualization Techniques

Imagine that you are delivering your presentation to an audience that is interested, enthused, smiling,
and reacting positively. Cement this positive image in your mind and recall it just before you are ready
to start.
Self-Massage
Press and massage your forehead to energize the front of the brain and speech centre.

Relaxation Exercises
Although you may not feel relaxed before you give your presentation relaxation, exercises can help. Try
the following relaxation exercises, but do not continue with them if they cause any pain or discomfort
although remember that you may use some muscles you have not exercised for a while and so feel a
little stiff afterwards.

Quick Relaxation Exercises

 Stand in an easy position with your feet one pace apart, knees 'unlocked'
and not rigidly pushed back, spine straight, shoulders not tense, and head
balanced. Try to keep your face muscles relaxed by not clenching your jaw
or clamping your teeth together.
 Now stretch SLOWLY upwards, aim to touch the ceiling but keep your feet
flat on the floor. Then flop forward from the waist bending your knees
slightly as you go. You are now hanging forward like a rag doll - your arms
and head totally unsupported and relaxed.
 Straighten up SLOWLY, almost vertebra by vertebra, as if you were puppet
and a giant puppet master was pulling you up by the strings keeping your
head until last, when you are standing in your original easy position.
Repeat this exercise three times.

Alternatively you can relax in a chair:

 Sit comfortably with your lower spine pressed into the back of the chair.
 Raise your arms above your head and stretch as high as possible.
  Release your arms to your sides and bend forwards with your legs
stretched out and stretch your arms out far as possible.
Return to your starting position.
Repeat this exercise three times.

See our section: Relaxation Techniques for more information and ideas of how you can
learn to relax effectively.

During the presentation

Many people find that once they are actually giving their presentation or speech they
feel a lot better and more relaxed. But it's important to remember to:

Pause
Just before you start talking, pause, make eye contact, and smile. This last moment of peace is very
relaxing and gives you time to adjust to being the centre of attention.

Smile
Smiling is a natural relaxant that sends positive chemical messages through your body. Smiling and
maintaining eye contact also help you build rapport with your audience.

Slow Down
Speak more slowly than you would in a conversation, and leave longer pauses between sentences. This
slower pace will calm you down, and it will also make you easier to hear, especially at the back of a large
room.

Move Around
Move around a little during your presentation as this will expend some of your nervous energy.
However, try not to pace backwards and forwards, or rock on your heels, as these activities can be
distracting or irritating to your audience.
Stop Thinking About Yourself
Remember that the audience is there to get some information and that it is your job to put that
information across to them. Try to put your nerves aside and think about communicating your message
as effectively as possible.

After the event

It's important to focus on the positives of your presentation once you've finished.
Experience is the single most effective way of overcoming presentation nerves and
delivering better presentations in the future.

Get feedback
When possible, ask members of your audience for constructive feedback on your presentation. Listen to
what they say and focus on areas that need improvement. Try to see any negative points not as a
measure of failure but as learning opportunities for future presentations. Our page on Giving and
Receiving Feedback may help here.

Use reflective practice

Reflective practice is a useful technique to help you think about and analyse your experiences and can be
used for many aspects of life. The use of reflective practice for a presentation can be particularly useful
for helping to minimise feelings of nervousness for future presentations. See our page of Reflective
Practice for more help and information.

Don't beat yourself up

Like most things in life, presentations are unlikely to be perfect and there are always ways you can
improve. When you get feedback from others and reflect on your own performance, it is important that
you understand this and give yourself a break. Think about the positives and what went well, and learn
from any mistakes or elements that you feel unhappy with.

Treat yourself
Treat yourself to something that you'll enjoy. Perhaps a glass of wine, or a nice cake or just a relaxing
soak in the bath. Something to make you feel a bit special and recognise your achievement.
vHow to give a technical presentation (how to give a scientific talk)

by Michael Ernst
January, 2005
Last updated: March 27, 2018

Contents:

 Introduction
 The content
 The slides
 The presentation
o Answering questions
 In-class presentations
 Practice talks
 Other resources

Introduction
(Also see my advice on giving a job talk and on making a technical poster.)

There are many good references regarding how to give an effective talk — that is, a technical
presentation, whether at a conference, to your research group, or as an invited speaker at another
university or research laboratory. This page cannot replace them, but it does briefly note a few
problems that I very frequently see in talks.

Get feedback by giving a practice talk! One of the most effective ways to improve your work is
to see the reactions of others and get their ideas and advice.

Think about the presentations you attend (or have attended in the past), especially if they are
similar in some way to yours. What was boring about the other presentations? What was
interesting about them? What did you take away from the presentation? What could you have
told someone about the topic, 30 minutes after the end of the presentation?

The content
Before you start preparing a talk, you need to know your goal and know your audience. You will
have to customize your presentation to its purpose. Even if you have previously created a talk for
another venue, you may have to make a new one, particularly if you have done more work in the
meanwhile.

The goal of a talk you give to your research group is to get feedback to help you improve your
research and your understanding of it, so you should plan for a very interactive style, with lots of
questions throughout. In a conference talk, questions during the talk are extremely unlikely, and
you have much less time; your chief goal is to get people to read the paper or ask questions
afterward. In a seminar or invited talk at a university, you want to encourage questions, you have
more time, and you should plan to give more of the big picture.

The goal of a talk is similar to the goal of a technical paper, so you should also read and follow
my advice about writing a technical paper. In either case, you have done some research, and you
need to convince the audience of 3 things: the problem is worthwhile (it is a real problem, and a
solution would be useful), the problem it is hard (not already solved, and there are not other
ways to achieve equally good results), and that you have solved it. If any of these three pieces is
missing, your talk is much less likely to be a success. So be sure to provide motivation for your
work, provide background about the problem, and supply sufficient technical details and
experimental results.

When you give a talk, ask yourself, “What are the key points that my audience should take away
from the talk?” Then, elide everything that does not support those points. If you try to say too
much (a tempting mistake), then your main points won't strike home and you will have wasted
everyone's time. In particular, do not try to include all the details from a technical paper that
describes your work; different levels of detail and a different presentation style are appropriate
for each.

A good way to determine what your talk should say is to explain your ideas verbally to someone
who does not already understand them. Do this before you have tried to create slides (you may
use a blank whiteboard, but that often is not necessary). You may need to do this a few times
before you find the most effective way to present your material. Notice what points you made
and in what order, and organize the talk around that. Slides should not be a crutch that constrains
you talk, but they should support the talk you want to give.

Do not try to fit too much material in a talk. About one slide per minute is a good pace (if lots of
your slides are animations that take only moments to present, you can have more slides).
Remember what your key points are, and focus on those. Don't present more information than
your audience can grasp; for example, often intuitions and an explanation of the approach are
more valuable than the gory details of a proof. If you try to fit the entire technical content of a
paper into a talk, you will rush, with the result that the audience may come away understanding
nothing. It's better to think of the talk as an advertisement for the paper that gives the key ideas,
intuitions, and results, and that makes the audience eager to read your paper or to talk with you to
learn more. That does not mean holding back important details — merely omitting less important
ones. You may also find yourself omitting entire portions of the research that do not directly
contribute to the main point you are trying to make in your talk.

Just as there should be no extra slides, there should be no missing slides. As a rule, you shouldn't
speak for more than a minute or so without having new information appear. If you have an
important point to make, then have a slide to support it. (Very few people can mesmerize an
audience on a technical topic, and leave the audience with a deep understanding of the key
points, without any visual props. Unfortunately, you are probably not one of them, at least not
yet.) As a particularly egregious example, do not discuss a user interface without presenting a
picture of it — perhaps multiple ones. As another example, you should not dwell on the title
slide for very long, but should present a picture relevant to the problem you are solving, to make
the motivation for your work concrete.

The slides
Slide titles. Use descriptive slide titles. Do not use the same title on multiple slides (except
perhaps when the slides constitute an animation or build). Choose a descriptive title that helps
the audience to appreciate what the specific contribution of this slide is. If you can't figure that
out, it suggests that you have not done a good job of understanding and organizing your own
material.

Introduction. Start your talk with motivation and examples — and have lots of motivation and
examples throughout. For the very beginning of your talk, you need to convince the audience
that this talk is worth paying attention to: it is solving an important and comprehensible problem.
Your first slide should be an example of the problem you are solving, or some other motivation.

Outline slides. Never start your talk with an outline slide. (That's boring, and it's too early for
the audience to understand the talk structure yet.) Outline slides can be useful, especially in a talk
that runs longer than 30 minutes, because they helps the audience to regain its bearings and to
keep in mind your argument structure. Present an outline slide (with the current current section
indicated via color, font, and/or an arrow) at the beginning of each major section of the talk,
other than the introductory, motivational section.

Conclusion. The last slide should be a contributions or conclusions slide, reminding the
audience of the take-home message of the talk. Do not end the talk with future work, or with a
slide that says “questions” or “thank you” or “the end” or merely gives your email address. And,
leave your contributions slide up after you finish the talk (while you are answering questions).
One way to think about this rule is: What do you want to be the last thing that the audience sees
(or that it sees while you field questions)?

Builds. When a subsequent slide adds material to a previous one (or in some other way just
slightly changes the previous slide; this is sometimes called a “build”), all common elements
must remain in exactly the same position. A good way to check this is to quickly transition back
and forth between the two slides several times. If you see any jitter, then correct the slide layout
to remove it. You may need to leave extra space on an early slide to accommodate text or figures
to be inserted later; even though that space may look a little unnatural, it is better than the
alternative. If there is any jitter, the audience will know that something is different, but will be
uneasy about exactly what has changed (the human eye is good at detecting the change but only
good at localizing changes when those changes are small and the changes are smooth). You want
the audience to have confidence that most parts of the slide have not changed, and the only
effective way to do that is not to change those parts whatsoever. You should also consider
emphasizing (say, with color or highlighting) what has been added on each slide.

Keep slides uncluttered. Don't put too much text (or other material) on a slide. When a new
slide goes up, the audience will turn its attention to comprehending that slide. If the audience has
to read a lot of text, they will tune you out, probably missing something important. This is one
reason the diagrams must be simple and clear, and the text must be telegraphic. As a rule of
thumb, 3 lines of text for a bullet point is always too much, and 2 full lines is usually too much.
Shorten the text, or break it into pieces (say, subbullet points) so that the audience can skim it
without having to ignore you for too long.

Do not read your slides word-for-word. Reading your slides verbatim is very boring and will
cause the audience to tune out. You are also guaranteed to go too fast for some audience
members and too slow for others, compared to their natural reading speed, thus irritating many
people. If you find yourself reading your slides, then there is probably too much text on your
slides. The slides should be an outline, not a transcript. That is, your slides should give just the
main points, and you can supply more detail verbally. It's fine to use the slides as a crutch to help
you remember all the main points and the order in which you want to present them. However, if
you need prompting to remember the extra details, then you do not have sufficient command of
your material and need to practice your talk more before giving it publicly.

Just as you should not read text verbatim, you should not read diagrams verbatim. When
discussing the architecture of a system, don't just read the names of the components or give low-
level details about the interfaces between them. Rather, explain whatever is important,
interesting, or novel about your decomposition; or discuss how the parts work together to
achieve some goal that clients of the system care about; or use other techniques to give high-
level understanding of the system rather than merely presenting a mass of low-level details.

(It's possible to overdo the practice of limiting what information appears on each slide, and you
do want to have enough material to support you if there are questions or to show that the
simplified model you presented verbally is an accurate generalization. But the mistake of
including too much information is far more common.)

Text. Keep fonts large and easy to read from the back of the room. If something isn't important
enough for your audience to be able to read, then it probably does not belong on your slides.

Use a sans-serif font for your slides. (Serifed fonts are best for reading on paper, but sans-serif
fonts are easier to read on a screen.) PowerPoint's “Courier New” font is very light (its strokes
are very thin). If you use it, always make it bold, then use color or underlining for emphasis
where necessary.

Figures. Make effective use of figures. Avoid a presentation that is just text. Such a presentation
misses important opportunities to convey information. It is also is wearying to the audience.

Images and visualizations are extremely helpful to your audience. Include diagrams to show how
your system works or is put together. Never include generic images, such as clip art, that don't
relate directly to your talk. For example, if you have a slide about security, don't use the image of
a padlock. As another example, when describing the problem your work solves, don't use an
image of a person sitting at a computer looking frustrated. Just as good pictures and text are
better than text alone, text alone is better than text plus bad pictures.
When you include a diagram on a slide, ensure that its background is the same color as that of
the slide. For example, if your slides have a black background, then do not paste in a diagram
with a white background, which is visually distracting, hard to read, and unattractive. You should
invert the diagram so it matches the slide (which may require redrawing the diagram), or invert
the slide background (e.g., use a white slide background) to match the diagrams.

Do not use eye candy such as transition effects, design elements that appear on every slide, or
multi-color backgrounds. At best, you will distract the audience from the technical material that
you are presenting. At worst, you will alienate the audience by giving them the impression that
you are more interested in graphical glitz than in content. Your slides can be attractive and
compelling without being fancy. Make sure that each element on the slides contributes to your
message; if it does not, then remove it.

Color. About 5% of American males are color-blind, so augment color with other emphasis
where possible.

The presentation
Make eye contact with the audience. This draws them in and lets you know whether you are
going too fast, too slow, or just right. Do not face the screen, which puts your back to the
audience. This is offputting, prevents you from getting feedback from the audience's body
language, and can cause difficulty in hearing/understanding you. Do not look down at your
computer, either, which shares many of the same problems.

Don't stand in front of the screen. This prevents the audience from viewing your slides.

Being animated is good, but do not pace. Pacing is very distracting, and it gives the impression
that you are unprofessional or nervous.

When giving a presentation, never point at your laptop screen, which the audience cannot see.
Amazingly, I have seen many people do this! Using a laser pointer is fine, but the laser pointer
tends to shake, especially if you are nervous, and can be distracting. I prefer to use my hand,
because the talk is more dynamic if I stride to the screen and use my whole arm; the pointing is
also harder for the audience to miss. You must touch the screen physically, or come within an
inch of it. If you do not touch the screen, most people will just look at the shadow of your finger,
which will not be the part of the slide that you are trying to indicate.

If you find yourself suffering a nervous tic, such as saying “um” in the middle of every sentence,
then practice more, including in front of audiences whom you do not know well.

If you get flustered, don't panic. One approach is to stop and regroup; taking a drink of water is a
good way to cover this, so you should have water on hand even if you don't suffer from dry
throat. Another approach is to just skip over that material; the audience is unlikely to know that
you skipped something.
Think about your goal in giving the talk. When presenting to your own research group, be sure to
leave lots of time for discussion and feedback at the end, and to present the material in a way that
invites interaction after and perhaps during the talk. (When presenting to your own group, you
can perhaps give a bit less introductory material, though it's hard to go wrong with intro material.
It should go quickly for that audience; you ensure that everyone is using terms the same way;
and it's always good to practice giving the motivation, context, background, and big ideas.)

For computer science conferences, the typical dress code is “business casual”. (For men, this is a
dress shirt with slacks or jeans. For women, I am not qualified to give advice.) Some people
dress more formally, some more casually. The most important thing is that you are comfortable
with your clothing; if you are not, your discomfort will lead to a worse presentation.

Answering questions
Answering questions from the audience is very hard! Even after you become very proficient at
giving a talk, it will probably take you quite a bit longer to become good at answering questions.
So, don't feel bad if that part does not go perfectly, but do work on improving it.

Just as you practice your talk, practice answering questions — both the ones that you can predict,
and also unpredictable ones. Giving practice talks to people who are willing to ask such
questions can be very helpful.

When an audience member asks a question, it is a good idea to repeat the question, asking the
questioner whether you have understood it, before answering the question. This has three
benefits.

 You ensure that you have understood the question. When thinking under pressure, it can be far
too easy to jump to conclusions, and it is bad to answer a question different than the one that
was asked. A related benefit is that you get to frame the question in your own words or from
your own viewpoint.
 You give yourself a few moments to think about your answer.
 If the audience member does not have a microphone, the rest of the audience may not have
been able to hear the question clearly.

Be willing to answer a question with “no” or “I don't know”. You will get into more trouble if
you try to blather on or to make up an answer on the fly.

In-class presentations
For an in-class presentation, you will be judged on how well other people understand the
material at the end of the class, not on how well you understand the material at the beginning of
the class. (You do need to understand the material, but that is not the main point.)

When you present someone else's paper in class, you should cover not only the technical details
(people generally do a good job of this), but also what is novel and why others didn't do it before.
That is just as important but very often overlooked. Focus on what is important about the paper,
not just on what is easy to explain or to give an example for.

Know what your main point is, and don't get bogged down in easier-to-understand but less
interesting details. Try not to bring up a topic until you are ready to discuss it in detail — don't
bring it up multiple times.

Encourage questions — it's the best way to deepen understanding — and be able to answer them.
If other students wrote questions in a reading summary, be responsive to them. When you ask a
question, don't assume the answer in the form of your question. For example, don't ask, “Was
there anything novel in the paper, or not?” but “What was novel in the paper?” It can be very
effective to ask a question that reveals understanding of a subtle or easy-to-misunderstand point
(but an important one!) in the paper, because this will lead the audience members to reflect both
on the paper and on the way they read and understood it. Don't be too abstruse, and don't get
bogged down in unimportant details just to show your mastery of them.

Augment your talking with visuals on the board or slides. Either is fine. The board may
encourage more interaction (and it slows you down in a beneficial way), but does require pre-
planning; don't just go up and start drawing. Most people find comfort in having pre-prepared
slides, and slides can be a good choice because they can be more legible and detailed, can
include animations, etc. Don't waste a huge amount of time on elaborate slide decks, though; that
is not the point. Examples are often very helpful.

Practice talks
Always give a practice talk before you present in front of an audience. Even if you have read
over your slides and think you know how the talk will go, when you speak out loud your ideas
are likely to come out in a different or less clear way. (This is true about writing, too: even if you
know what you want to say, it takes several revisions to figure out the best way to say it.) In fact,
you should practice the talk to yourself — speaking out loud in front of a mirror, for example —
before you give your first practice talk. In such a practice session, you must say every word you
intend to in the actual talk, not skipping over any parts.

It can be a good idea to keep your practice talk audience relatively small — certainly fewer than
10 people. In a large group, many people won't bother to speak up. If the pool of potential
attendees is larger than 10, you can give multiple practice talks, since the best feedback is given
by someone who has not seen the talk (or even the material) before. Giving multiple practice
talks is essential for high-profile talks such as conference talks and interview talks. Avoid a small
audience of people you don't trust, who might be unanimous in a wrong opinion; getting a
balance of opinions will help you avoid making too many mistakes in any one direction.

Consider videotaping yourself to see how you come across to others. This information can be a
bit traumatic, but it is invaluable in helping you to improve.

When giving a practice talk, number your slides (say, in the corner), even if you don't intend to
include slide numbers in your final presentation.
When giving a practice talk, it is very helpful to distribute hardcopy slides (remember to include
slide numbers) so that others can easily annotate them and return them to you at the end of the
talk. (Also, the audience will spend less time trying to describe what slide their comment applies
to, and more time writing the comment and paying attention to you.) For non-practice talks, you
generally shouldn't give out hardcopy slides, as they will tempt the audience to pay attention to
the piece of paper instead of to you.

Go to other people's practice talks. This is good citizenship, and cultivating these obligations is a
good way to ensure that you have an audience at your practice talk. Furthermore, attending
others' talks can teach you a lot about good and bad talks — both from observing the speaker and
thinking about how the talk can be better (or is already excellent), and from comparing the the
feedback of audience members to your own opinions and observations. This does not just apply
to practice talks: you should continually perform such introspective self-assessment.

(Also see Tessa Lau's advice on giving a practice talk — which focuses on a practice talk for a
PhD qualifying exam, but is relevant to talks in general.)

Other resources
Here are some other good resources for speakers who wish to give a good talk.

See Ian Parberry's speaker's guide.

The LaTeX Beamer documentation has some good advice.

Craig Kaplan transcribed some presentation tips from an unknown source, via Edward Tufte.