The synthesis and adsorption performance of polyamine Cu 2+ imprinted polymer for selective removal of Cu 2+

In this paper, the Cu 2+ ion-imprinted polymer (Cu 2+ -IIP) was prepared in the homogeneous phase by the ion-imprinted technology. Polyethyleneimine was used as the basic bone which was rich in amino-functionalized groups to coordinate with template Cu 2+ and the 1,2-bibromoethane was used as a crosslinker. The chemical structure and surface morphology of the imprinted polymer were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Batch adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the adsorption capacity, the adsorption isotherm and the adsorption selectivity of Cu 2+ -IIP. The maximum adsorption capacity of Cu 2+ -IIP was 83.3 mg/g, significantly more than most of the reported adsorbents and also about 2.4 times that of non-imprinted polymer (Non-IIP) in this work. In addition, Cu 2+ -IIP performed good adsorption selectivity towards Cu 2+ with the interference of Ni 2+ , Zn 2+ , or Pb 2+ . These results indicated that Cu 2+ -IIP is a promising absorbent for the real wastewater treatment.