Metal ion retention properties of water‐insoluble polymers containing carboxylic acid groups

Crosslinked poly(acrylic acid), PAA, and poly(2‐acrylamidoglycolic acid), PAAG, were synthesized by radical polymerization. Both resins contain carboxylic acid groups. PAA at basic pH exists basically as an acrylate anion and PAAG shows three atoms or groups, carboxylic acid, hydroxyl, and amide groups, that can act as ion exchanger or chelating groups. Both resins are studied as adsorbents to trace metal ions from saline aqueous solutions and natural sea water and their properties by Batch equilibrium procedure are compared. The metal ions studied under competitive and noncompetitive conditions were Cu(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), and Ni(II). The effects of pH, time of contact, amount of resin, temperature, and salinity were studied. Resin PAA shows a high affinity (>80%) for Cu(II) and Cd(II) and resin PAAG shows also a high affinity for Ni(II), Pb(II), and Cd(II). By treatment of the metal ion‐loaded resin with 4M HNO₃ it is possible to recover completely the Cu(II) ions from resin PAA and Ni(II) and Pb(II) from resin PAAG. The metal ion retention properties were studied with natural sea water. For those natural sea waters containing Cu(II) and Cd(II), the resins showed a high affinity for Cd(II) ions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 697–705, 2006