Preparation of Iminoacetic Acid-type Composite Chelating Material IAA-PEI/SiO2 and Preliminary Studies on Chelating Adsorption Property towards Heavy Metal Ions

Polyamine polyethyleneimine (PEI) was first grafted on the surfaces of micro-sized silica gel particles in the manner of the coupling graft (the manner of “grafting to”), forming the grafting particles PEI/SiO₂. Subsequently, via a polymer reaction, the nucleophilic substitution reaction between the primary and secondary amino groups of the grafted PEI macromolecule and chloroactic acid (CAA), iminoacetic acid groups were bonded onto the grafted PEI chains, and an iminoacetic acid (IAA)-type composite chelating material, IAA-PEI/SiO₂, was formed. In this work, the preparation process of IAA-PEI/SiO₂ particles was mainly researched, and the effects of the main factors on the polymer reaction, i.e., the nucleophilic substitution reaction, were examined emphatically. The adsorption behavior of IAA-PEI/SiO₂ particles towards several kinds of heavy metal ions was preliminarily evaluated. The experiments results show that it is feasible to introduce IAA groups onto PEI/SiO₂ particles via the substitution reaction between CAA and the amino groups of the grafted PEI. The reaction rate is affected greatly by the feed ratio of the amino group of PEI to CAA, so the substitution reaction between CAA and the amino groups of the grafted PEI is a bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction (S_N2). The reaction temperature and the used amount of acid-acceptor NaHCO₃ affect the bonding rate of IAA groups greatly. The fitting temperature was 60°C, and 1:1 of the molar ratio of NaHCO₃ to CAA was an appropriate amount of acid-acceptor NaHCO₃. Under the above optimal reaction conditions and with 3:1 molar ratio of amino group of PEI to CAA, 72% of the IAA group bonding rate (it is based on the hydrogen atoms in the primary and secondary amino groups of the grafted PEI) in 8 h can be reached. The composite chelating material IAA-PEI/SiO₂ possesses a strong chelating adsorption ability for heavy metal ions because of the increase of the ligands and formation of stable five-membered chelate rings.