Removal of cadmium ions from wastewater by dithiocarbamate functionalized pyrrole based terpolymers

This study reports the synthesis of a new series of polydithiocarbamates via polycondensation of pyrrole, alkyldiamines and paraformaldehyde followed by functionalization with carbon disulfide. The polymers where characterized by elemental analyzer, 13C NMR, FTIR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The polymers were tested for the removal of cadmium ions from aqueous solutions and spiked wastewater samples. The adsorption experiments revealed the superior efficiency of the synthesized polymers in the removal of cadmium ions from aqueous solutions (Qm = 14.18 mg/L). Experimental results showed that the data fits Ho second-order kinetic model with R2 > 0.99, which assumes chemical adsorption. The data showed fitness to Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models with R2 ∼ 0.999. PYEDCS2 cross-linked polymer showed superiority among the synthesized polymers and showed high efficiency with a removal of ∼99.7% of Cd2+ ions and proven to be a potential adsorbent for treatment of wastewater.