Study of Copper Ion Adsorption by Itaconic-Based Hydrogels

Hydrogels are macromolecular, insoluble polymers, capable of absorbing large quantities of water. Their properties make them widely utilized superabsorbents. Recently, a novel family of ionic solvents called deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been applied to prepare the hydrogels. In this work, poly(itaconic acid) - based hydrogels prepared by free-radical polymerization-crosslinking of itaconic acid in deep eutectic mixture with choline chloride, were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy and SEM. The process of removal of copper cations (Cu2+) from aqueous solutions by the gels was studied. The Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherm models were applied to quantitative describe the metal binding.