Functionalized macroporous copolymer of glycidyl methacrylate: The type of ligand and porosity parameters influence on Cu(II) ion sorption from aqueous solutions

Abstract

The removal of heavy metals from hydro-metallurgical and other industries' wastewaters, their safe storage and possible recovery from waste- water streams is one of the greater ecological problems of modern society. Conventional methods, like precipitation, adsorption and biosorption, electrowinning, membrane separation, solvent extraction and ion exchange are often ineffective, expensive and can generate secondary pollution. On the other hand, chelating polymers, consisting of crosslinked copolymers as a solid support and functional group (ligand), are capable of selectively loading different metal ions from aqueous solutions. In the relatively simple process, the chelating copolymer is contacted with the contaminated solution, loaded with metal ions, and stripped with the appropriate eluent. Important properties of chelating polymers are high capacity, high selectivity and fast kinetics combined with mechanical stability and chemical inertness. Macroporous hydrophilic copolymers of glycidyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate modified by different amines show outstanding efficiency and selectivity for the sorption of precious and heavy metals from aqueous solutions. In this study poly(GMA-co-EGDMA) copolymers were synthesized with different porosity parameters and functionalized in reactions with ethylene diamine (EDA), diethylene triamine (DETA) and triethylene tetramine (TETA). Under non-competitive conditions, in batch experiments at room temperature, the rate of sorption of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solutions and the influence of pH on it was determined for four samples of amino-functionalized poly(GMA-co-EGDMA). The sorption of Cu(II) for both amino-functionalized samples was found to be very rapid. The sorption half time, t1/2, defined as the time required to reach 50% of the total sorption capacity, was between 1 and 2 min. The maximum sorption capacity for copper (2.80 mmol/g) was obtained on SGE-10/12-deta sample. The sorption capacity of Cu(II) ions increases with increasing pH and has maximum at pH ~5. In the experimental pH range, the maximum sorption capacity of Cu(II) ions again is reached on SGE-10/12-deta. By comparing literature data and obtained results it is possible to conclude that amino-functionalized macroporous copolymers based on glycidyl methacrylate are efficient for sorption of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solutions and sorption capacity for copper mostly depends on type of amine with which the basic copolymer is functionalized.