Synthesis and application of chelating resins based on polyacrylonitrilediethylenetriamine for metal ions removal

Chelating resins based on polyacrylonitrile and diethylenetriamine (PAN-DTA) wereprepared through the simple reaction of polyacrylonitrile with various volume percents ofdiethylenetriamine (DTA), (25, 50, 75 and 100). The prepared resins were applied to removeheavy metal ions such as Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) from aqueous solutions. The sorptionbehaviors of the resins for these metal ions were found to be greater at higher solution pH values.Highest sorption on PAN-DTA was determined as 5 mmol g-1 for Cu(II). The number of aminegroups present in the resin (amine capacity) is depended on the volume percent of DTA and themaximum capacity was obtained 6.25 mmol g-1. The resins and their metal complexes have beenstudied by FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetryanalysis (TGA). All these analyses methods confirmed the presence of metal in the metal-resincomplexes.