Immobilization of 5-aminopyridine-2-tetrazole on cross-linked polystyrene for the preparation of a new adsorbent to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous solution

Highlights: • Novel chelating resin was prepared using pyridine-2-tetrazole as ligand. • The resin has quite high adsorption capacity for Cu(II), Pb(II) and Hg(II). • The resin shows the different selectivity from the common used IDA resin. • The preparation procedure is a two-step reaction and is easy to carry out. - Abstract: Novel 5-aminopyridine-2-tetrazole-functionalized polystyrene resin (APTZ-PS) was prepared by anchoring 5-aminopyridine-2-carbonitrile onto chloromethylated polystyrene beads (CMPS) and subsequently using the cyano-tetrazole conversion reaction. The APTZ-PS resin was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and specific surface area and pore size analyses. The adsorption experiments of the prepared resin for heavy metal ions were conducted by batch methods. The effects of the experimental conditions, such as pH, contact time and initial metal ion concentration on the adsorption properties of Cu(II), Pb(II) and Hg(II) were investigated. The results showed that the resin possessed perfect adsorption capacities for Cu(II), Pb(II) and Hg(II), and the selectivity was different from the commonly used iminodiacetic acid-chelating resin. The sorption kinetics of the three metal ions followed the pseudo-second-order equation. The adsorption isotherms for Cu(II) and Pb(II) could be better fitted by the Langmuir model than the Freundlich model, whereas the Freundlich model was the best for the Hg(II) ion. Even after five consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles, no obvious change in the adsorption capacity of the resin was found, which implied that the APTZ-PS resin was suitable for the efficient removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution