Separation of heavy metals from water by functionalized glycidyl methacrylate poly (high internal phase emulsions)

• Highly porous functional polymer supports applied for sorption of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions.
• Interconnected porous structure of polymer allows for more efficient contact of reactive sites with analytes.
• Dynamics of metal removal facilitated by flow mode of experiment.
• Chemisorption rather than physisorption prevailing mechanism of removal.

Removal of silver, lead and cadmium ions from both model solutions and real contaminated water was achieved, in a flow through manner, by using highly porous functionalized poly(glycidyl methacrylate) materials, prepared by the polymerisation of high internal phase emulsions (polyHIPE), with significant sorption differences between metals allowing for selective removal. PolyHIPEs, initially prepared from glycidyl methacrylate as a functional monomer, were functionalized with pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate), 1,9-nonanedithiol and 2-aminobenzenethiol via the epoxy ring opening on the polymer supports and applied in a flow-through manner via encasements into dedicated disk holders. Capacity of 21.7 mg Ag per gram of polymer was found for 1,9-nonanedithiol functionalized polymers, while the capacity was decreasing with the decreasing ionic radius of the metal; the dynamics of sorption also depended on metal ion size and furthermore on the thiol used for the polymer functionalization.