Non-destructive separation of metal ions from wastewater containing excess aminopolycarboxylate chelant in solution with an ion-selective immobilized macrocyclic material

Although the excellent metal-binding capacities of aminopolycarboxylate chelants (APCs) facilitate their extensive use, pre- and post-toxicity of APCs and their high persistence in aquatic environments evoke concerns. Several treatment techniques with a principal focus on the degradation of APCs at the pre-release step have been proposed. Here, we report a technique for the separation of metal ions from waste solution containing excess APCs using a solid phase extraction system with an ion-selective immobilized macrocyclic material, commonly known as a molecular recognition technology (MRT) gel. Synthetic metal solutions with 100-fold chelant content housed in H2O matrices were used as samples. The MRT gel showed a higher recovery rate compared with other SPE materials at 20 °C using a flow rate of 0.2 mL min−1. The effects of solution pH, metal-chelant stability constants and ionic radii were assessed for 32 metals. Compared to the conventional treatment options for such waste solutions, our proposed technique has the advantage of non-destructive separation of both metal ions and chelants.