Fast removal of methylene blue and Hg(II) from aqueous solution using a novel super-adsorbent containing residues of glycine and maleic acid

Highlights: • A novel resin embedded with carboxylate and metal chelating ligands was synthesized. • The resin is a superabsorbent for methylene blue with a q_m of 2101 mg g⁻¹. • The resin removed priority metal pollutants including Hg(II) to sub-ppb levels. • The resin removed priority metal pollutants and methylene blue simultaneously. -- Abstract: The alternate cyclo-copolymerization of diallylammonioethanoate [(CH₂=CHCH₂)₂NCH₂CO₂⁻] and maleic acid in the presence of a cross-linker afforded a novel pH-responsive resin (90% yield). The resin has turned out to be a super-adsorbent for methylene blue (MB) removal with a q_Max of 2101 mg g⁻¹. The adsorption of the dye followed pseudo second-order kinetics with an energy of activation (E_a) of 31.5 kJ mol^-1. The process showed an extraordinarily fast adsorption rate owing to faster film diffusion; the resin (250 mg) was able to trap 78 and 99.4% MB from its 3000 mg L⁻¹ solution (100 mL) within 3 and 30 min, respectively. Equilibrium constants from Langmuir nonlinear isotherm model in the range 288–328 K gave ΔG^o ΔH^o, and ΔS^o values of ≈ −25 kJ, −13 kJ and 39.5 J mol⁻¹ K⁻¹, respectively. Immobilization mechanism was discussed using FTIR, SEM, and Elovich kinetic model. The presence of the chelating glycine residues was exploited for the removal of Hg(II) ions; the q_Hg was determined to be 263 mg g⁻¹. The resin also removed MB and Hg(II) simultaneously from industrial wastewater with remarkable efficacy. The very impressive performance along with efficient recycling conferred the resin a top position among many sorbents.