Competitive Removal of Heavy Metal Ions by Starch-Graft-Acrylic Acid Copolymers

Graft copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA) onto starch was carried out with ceric ammonium nitrate as initiator under nitrogen atmosphere. The structures of the synthesized graft copolymers were identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The grafting percentages (GP%) of starch-graft-acrylic acid (S-g-AA) copolymers were determined. Increasing the molar concentration of AA from 0.1 to 0.5 mol/L caused a significant increase in the GP%. The effect of GP% of S-g-AA copolymers on the competitive removal of Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Cd²⁺ ions from aqueous solution was investigated at pH 4.5. The concentrations of each ion in aqueous solution were equal to each other, which were kept constant at 4 mmol/L. Metal ion removal capacities were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Metal ion removal capacities of S-g-AA copolymers rose with the increase in GP% of the copolymers and the order of the removal of heavy metal ions was Pb²⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Cd²⁺.