Sorption behavior of ion-exchange terpolymer resin with environmental impact: synthesis, characterization and isotherm models

A novel terpolymer acts as an effective chelating ion exchanger which was synthesized using 2-amino-6-nitro-benzothiazole and semicarbazide with formaldehyde (BSF) by solution condensation technique. Its ion exchange properties was determined against certain metal ions viz. Fe 3+ , Co 2+ , Ni 2+ , Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ using batch equilibrium technique with different electrolyte concentrations, pH ranges and time intervals. The results of batch studies revealed that the separation of the selected metal ions from the aqueous solution by the terpolymer is found to be excellent compared to the available commercial resins and earlier reported resins. The order of metal ion uptake at higher concentrations by the BSF terpolymer at lower pH is Cu 2+ > Ni 2+ > Fe 3+ and at lower concentration at higher pH is Zn 2+ > Co 2+ > Pb 2+ . The reusability of the resin was also reported for its effective ion-exchange behaviour for several cycles. The adsorption isotherm model was evaluated and the results are in good agreement with each other. The order of kinetics was also determined and the resin follows pseudo-second-order kinetics. Moreover, the physico-chemical analysis gives strong evidence for the effective metal ion removal compared with the earlier reported and commercial resins. Earlier, the structure and the properties of the synthesized novel chelating resin were clearly elucidated by elemental, FTIR, UV–Vis, 1 H & 13 C NMR spectra, GPC, SEM and XRD.