Studies on adsorption behavior of Cu (II) and Cd (II) onto aminothiophene derivatives of Styrene Maleic anhydride copolymer

Abstract In this research Poly (styrene-maleic anhydride) (SMA) copolymer was chemically modified with two amino thiophene derivatives; ethyl 2-amino 4, 5, 6, 7-tetrahydrobenzo thiophene-3 carboxylate (EATTC) and of 2-amino 4, 5, 6, 7-tetrahydrobenzo thiophene- 3 cabonitrile (ATTCN). The obtained products SMA-N- thioph- COOEth (E1) and SMA-N- thioph- CN (E2) were investigated by means of IR, NMR, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric and elemental analysis. The adsorption properties of the products toward Cu (II) and Cd (II) ions were evaluated. Various factors affecting the uptake behavior such as pH, concentration and adsorption time on the extent of Cu (II) and Cd (II) absorption were studied. It was found that Cu absorption is higher than that of Cd which may be attributed to the larger size of Cd ions. The equilibrium removal performance of the SMA modified copolymer is analyzed according to the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models that show result fitted to both models. The experimental results showed that copper absorption by the SMA modified copolymer was achieved in 60 min and that the loading capacity reached 453 and 110 mg g −1 for Cu (II) and Cd (II) respectively, at pH 5-6 which was found to be an optimum condition.