Selective removal of copper from simulated nickel electrolyte by polystyrene-supported 2-aminomethylpyridine chelating resin

Abstract

A chelating resin, PS-AMP, was synthesized simply by the reaction of chloromethylated polystyrene with 2-aminomethylpyridine for selective copper removal from simulated nickel electrolyte. As to the sole metal solution, the equilibrium data could be described by the Langmuir model, and the maximum adsorption capacities for Cu(II) and Ni(II) were 1.53 and 0.50 mmol/g, respectively. The kinetic curves could be well fitted with the pseudo-second-order equation. The thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption of Cu(II) or Ni(II) on the PS-AMP resin was an endothermic and spontaneous process. Additionally, the PS-AMP resin displayed an excellent selectivity for Cu(II) versus Ni(II) in the binary metal solutions with the highest selectivity coefficient of 643. The selective adsorption mechanism of Cu(II) over Ni(II) was disclosed with XPS spectra and density functional theory calculations. The column dynamic breakthrough curves revealed that the PS-AMP resin could efficiently separate Cu(II) from simulated nickel electrolyte as the effluent increased to 30 BV. Thus, the chelating resin was potentially eligible for practical application in removing trace copper from simulated nickel electrolyte.