Polybenzimidazole hybrid membranes as a selective adsorbent of mercury

Polybenzimidazole hybrid membranes (H1–H3) were prepared by incorporating different amounts (wt.%) of inorganic hetero poly acids (IHA-Si) into polybenzimidazole (PBI) matrix. Structural, morphological and thermal characteristics of all the hybrid membranes were studied by FT-IR, XRD, SEM and TGA and further investigated functional relationships between the materials structure and metal ion uptake using Hg(II), Pb(II), Y(III), and Cd(II). It was found that H3 was most selective toward Hg(II) as compared to H1 and H2 and further uptake capacity of H1–H3 was strongly dependent on mesoporous silica. The hybrid membranes with high mesoporous silica (H3) exhibited high thermal stability and high uptake capacity toward Hg(II) which was experimentally determined to be 2.48 mg g−1. Desorption study for the regeneration of adsorbent was also achieved using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid solution. Ultimately, the proposed method provided reasonable results for the determination of Hg(II) in environmental water samples.