Acrylic weak‐base anion exchangers and their behaviors in the retention process of some heavy‐metal cations

Two macroporous acrylonitrile/10% vinyl acetate/10% divinylbenzene copolymers as beads were obtained by the aqueous suspension copolymerization of the three comonomers in the presence of toluene as a diluent, which was used in two different amounts. These copolymers were chemically modified by their reactions with ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine, and triethylenetetramine in the presence of water when the aminolysis–hydrolysis reaction of the nitrile groups and the hydrolysis reaction of the acetate groups occurred. From these reactions, weak‐base anion exchangers with high ion‐exchange capacities, between 1.6 and 2.2 mequiv/mL and 6.5 and 10.5 mequiv/g, were obtained. For these anion exchangers, the behaviors in the retention processes of the Ni(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II) cations were evaluated with the bath method. All the resins exhibited retention properties, but the retained amounts of the metal cations differed as a function of the resin and cation nature. Thus, the resin from the reaction with triethylenetetramine of the copolymer obtained in the presence of a larger amount of toluene could be considered the most suitable sorbent for the three metal cations, especially for Ni(II). Its maximum retention capacity for this cation was 2.67 mequiv/g of dried resin. From the noncompetitive and competitive retentions was observed the following selectivity order: Ni(II) > Cd(II) > Pb(II). The retention took place by the chelating processes between the functional groups with the ligand role, especially free amine groups, and metal cations.