Preparation of a Novel Selective Adsorbent for Detection and Measurement of Mercury (II) Ions

Abstract

In this work, a polymeric adsorbent was synthesized by the imprinting technique for the measurement of Hg (II) ion from aqueous environmental samples. For this purpose, a novel aminothiol monomer has been initially synthesized then it has been used for complexing the mercury. The synthesized complex monomer copolymerized with methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and AIBN as the functional monomer, cross-linker and initiator respectively in the presence of a binary porogen of DMSO and toluene. The imprinted polymer was made after removing the mercury (II) ion by an acidic solution of thiourea. The results of batch procedures showed that the Hg (II)-imprinted polymer has adsorption capacity of 28 mg g-1and is high selective for adsorption of Hg (II) ion in competing with the other ions such as CH3Hg (I), Zn (II) and Cd (II) and also in comparing with non-imprinted polymers.