An eco-friendly synthesis, characterization, morphology and ion exchange properties of terpolymer resin derived from p-hydroxybenzaldehyde

Abstract

A novel chelating terpolymer resin has been synthesized through the terpolymerization of p-hydroxybenzaldehyde and biuret with formaldehyde (p-HBBF) in 1:1:2mol ratio using hydrochloric acid as a reaction medium by condensation technique. The synthesized terpolymer resin was characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopy. On basis of the spectral studies, the structure of the terpolymer resin was proposed. The physico-chemical parameters have been evaluated for the terpolymer resin. Non-aqueous conductometric titration was used to determine the average molecular weight and polydispersity of the p-HBBF terpolymer resin and the intrinsic viscosity was also determined. The semicrystalline nature of the synthesized terpolymer was established by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Terpolymer (p-HBBF) synthesized is proved to be selective chelating ion exchange terpolymer resin for certain metals. Chelating ion exchange properties of this polymer was studied for Fe3+, Cu2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Ni2+ and Pb2+ ions. A batch equilibrium method was employed in the study of the selectivity of the distribution of a given metal ions between the polymer sample and a solution containing the metal ion. The morphology of the terpolymers was studied by scanning electron microscopy, showing amorphous nature of the resins therefore can be used as a selective ion-exchanger for certain metal ions.