Involvement of aminoalkylated merrifield resins retracted by bis(chlorodiethyl) ether in metal extraction

Merrifield resin, a cross-linked polystyrene resin with chloromethyl functional groups, is an extremely resilient material resistant to water and environmental degradation. The objective was to develop novel substituted polymers with functional groups capable of chelating heavy metals for depollution applications. Cross-linked polymer networks, which are predominantly insoluble and adaptable to diverse chemical environments, are invaluable for pollution management. A key area of environmental significance is the selective retention of organic contaminants for purifying polluted water sources. This work focused on creating new chelating polymeric sorbents for metal extraction by grafting ethylenediamine (EDA) and triethylenetetramine (TETA) onto Merrifield resin, resulting in two polymers: MR-EDA and MR-TETA. These modified polymers were further reticulated with bis(chlorodiethyl) ether to produce two novel reticulated polymers, MR-TETA-BCEE and MR-EDA-BCEE. To characterize the polymers, differential thermal analysis (DTA) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy were employed. The resins were subsequently tested for their ability to extract lead (Pb??) and lithium (Li?) ions from aqueous solutions using the solid-phase extraction (SPE) method. Conductivity and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) analyses showed high extraction efficiencies, ranging from 50% to 85% for both Pb?? and Li? ions. These results demonstrated the potential of MR-EDABCEE and MR-TETA-BCEE as effective polymeric sorbents for environmental remediation and heavy metal removal from water.