Efficient removal of heavy metals from electroplating wastewater using polymer ligands

Abstract

Poly(hydroxamic acid)-poly(amidoxime) chelating ligands were synthesized from poly(methyl acrylate-co-acrylonitrile) grafted acacia cellulose for removing toxic metal ions from industrial wastewaters. These ligands showed higher adsorption capacity to copper (2.80 mmol•g -1 ) at pH 6. In addition, sorption capacities to other metal ions such as iron, zinc, chromium, and nickel were also found high at pH 6. The metal ions sorption rate (t 1/2 ) was very fast. The rate of adsorption of copper, iron, zinc, chromium, nickel, cobalt, cadmium and lead were 4, 5, 7, 5, 5, 8, 9 and 11 min, respectively. Therefore, these ligands have an advantage to the metal ions removal using the column technique. We have successfully investigated the known concentration of metal ions using various parameters, which is essential for designing a fixed bed column with ligands. The wastewater from electroplating plants used in this study, having chromium, zinc, nickel, copper and iron, etc. For chromium wastewater, ICP analysis showed that the Cr removal was 99.8% and other metal ions such as Cu, Ni, Fe, Zn, Cd, Pb, Co and Mn removal were 94.7%, 99.2%, 99.9%, 99.9%, 99.5%, 99.9%, 95.6% and 97.6%, respectively. In case of cyanide wastewater, the metal removal, especially Ni and Zn removal were 96.5 and 95.2% at higher initial concentration. For acid/alkali wastewater, metal ions removing for Cd, Cr and Fe were 99.2%, 99.5% and 99.9%, respectively. Overall, these ligands are useful for metal removal by column method from industrial wastewater especially plating wastewater.

Poly(hydroxamic acid) ligand from palm‐based waste materials for removal of heavy metals from electroplating wastewater

“…Pure cellulose has very low adsorption capacity, where the removal of trace level of metals is impossible; however, chemical modification can improve adsorption capacities. Studies have reported that introducing functional groups such as a carboxyl, amine, sulfur, and amino groups onto the surface of cellulose can improve the adsorption ability of cellulose 9–17 …”

Adsorption of Cadmium Ions from an Aqueous Solution on a Highly Stable Dopamine-Modified Magnetic Nano-Adsorbent

“…In particular, adsorption has been widely employed due to its simple operation, high efficiency, and cost-effectiveness [15]. In the past two decades, various adsorbent materials have been developed and utilized, including natural soil materials, inorganic minerals, activated carbon, zeolites, silica gel, chitosan, and polymer materials [16–22]. Compared to these adsorbents, magnetic nano-adsorbents can be developed and used for treating industrial wastewater due to their high specific surface area, good biocompatibility, cost-effectiveness, and rapid separation and recovery under an external magnetic field [23].…”

Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Wastewaters: An Application of Sodium Trithiocarbonate and Wastewater Toxicity Assessment

“…Example data show that wastewater from the chrome plating process (pH = 4) contained 0.105 mg/L Cu, 24.53 mg/L Cr, 3.380 mg/L Ni, 7.528 mg/L Zn and 1.188 mg/L Pb. Galvanic wastewater (pH = 4) from electrochemical processes using cyanide baths contained (apart from CN − ions) 5.194 mg/L Cu, 2.113 mg/L Cr, 35.56 mg/L Ni, 75.86 mg/L Zn and 0.013 mg/L Pb, while the acid–alkaline wastewater from washing processes contained small amounts of heavy metals—i.e., 0.621 mg/L Cu, 0.240 mg/L Cr, 2.970 mg/L Ni, 4.810 mg/L Zn and 0.025 mg/L Pb [ 18 ]. On the other hand, the wastewater from chemical and electrochemical processing of printed circuit boards (PCBs) revealed different concentrations of copper, depending on the type of the derived process—i.e., 3–20 mg/L (after alkaline and acid etching processes), 0.1–0.5 mg/L (after chemical copper plating), 0.5–3.0 mg/L (after electrolytic copper plating) and 10–60 mg/L (after brushing) [ 19 ].…”