Synthesis of Copper and Lead Ion Imprinted Polymer Submicron Spheres to Remove Cu2+ and Pb2+

In this paper, Methacrylic acid (MAA) and 4-vinyl pyridine (4-VP) as functional monomers, Ethylene glycol two methyl acrylate (EGDMA) as crosslinking agent, isopropyl alcohol as the solvent, prepared the Cu(II)- and Pb(II)- imprinted polymers (IIPs) submicron spheres by precipitation polymerization. The presence/absence of the template ion in the preparation of the imprinted polymer was confirmed by EDX spectroscopy, and the structure of the particles was investigated using IR, SEM and BET analysis. From different components of crosslinker/monomer (C/M) ratio analysis, C/M at 1:3 was the optimal ratio for preparing IIPs. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was characterized the imprinted polymers absorption behavior. The results show that the maximum adsorption capacity of Cu2+ and Pb2+ -imprinted polymer were 26.9 mg g−1 and 25.3 mg g−1, respectively. They also have good adsorption capacity and superior selectivity property for Cu2+ and Pb2+ in water, respectively. The selectivity factors (α) for Ni2+, Zn2+, Co2+ and Fe2+ were 16.5 (Cu2+) and 12.1 (Pb2+), 13.8 (Cu2+) and 16.2 (Pb2+), 10.8 (Cu2+) and 10.1 (Pb2+), 20.4 (Cu2+) and 20.7 (Pb2+), respectively. The regeneration experiment result demonstrates an excellent re-utilization property of these two type IIPs, after ten uses, the adsorption capacity can maintain above 60%.