Adsorption and desorption properties of the chelating membranes prepared from the PE films

Abstract

AbstractThe chelating membranes for adsorption of metal ions were prepared by the photografting of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) onto a polyethylene (PE) film and the subsequent modification of the resultant GMA‐grafted PE (PE‐g‐PGMA) films with disodium iminodiacetate in an aqueous solution of 55% DMSO at 80°C. The adsorption and desorption properties of the iminodiacetate (IDA) group‐appended PE‐g‐PGMA (IDA‐(PE‐g‐PGMA)) films to Cu2+ ions were investigated as functions of the grafted amount, pH value, Cu2+ ion concentration, and temperature. The amount of adsorbed Cu2+ ions increased with an increase in the pH value in the range of 1.0–5.0. The time required to reach the equilibrium adsorption decreased with an increase in the temperature, although the degree of adsorption stayed almost constant. The amount of Cu2+ ions desorbed from the (IDA‐(PE‐g‐PGMA)) films increased and the time required to reach the equilibrium desorption decreased with an increase in the HCl concentration. About 100% of Cu2+ ions were desorbed in the aqueous HCl solutions of more than 0.5M. The amounts of adsorbed and desorbed Cu2+ ions were almost the same in each cyclic process of adsorption in a CuCl2 buffer at pH 5.0 and desorption in an aqueous 1.0M HCl solution. These results indicate that the IDA‐(PE‐g‐PGMA) films can be applied to a repeatedly generative chelating membrane for adsorption and desorption of metal ions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99:1895–1902, 2006