Binding of several heavy metal ions by polyaspartyl polymers and their application to some Chinese herbal medicines |
| |
Authors: | Bo Sun Zhen‐Tao Mi Gang An Guozhu Liu |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300191, People's Republic of China;2. School of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, People's Republic of China |
| |
Abstract: | Water‐insoluble polyaspartyl polymers were synthesized by using water as medium instead of organic medium. Taking Ca2+ as a reference, the binding of several heavy‐metal ions, including Pb2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, Cr3+, Cu2+, and Mn2+, by polyaspartyl polymers was studied. The experimental results revealed that polyaspartate is an excellent binding agent for the investigated heavy‐metal ions. These cation ions were bound to polyaspartate polymer by the same mechanism as Pb2+, which can be explained by ion exchange model. Since polyaspartate has a protein‐resembling structure that is sensitive to trace heavy metal, it was used to remove some trace heavy‐metal elements in Chinese herbal medicines. It was found that polyaspartate material was an effective agent for the removal of Pb2+, Cd2+, and Hg2+ ions from glycyrrhizin, angelica, and gynostemma pentaphyllum. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007 |
| |
Keywords: | hydrogels gels hydrophilic polymers adsorption |
|
|