Investigation of mercury(II) and copper(II) sorption in single and binary systems by alginate/polyethylenimine membranes

This study investigates Hg(II) and Cu(II) sorption in single binary systems by alginate/polyethylenimine membranes. Batch experiments are conducted to assess the metal performance. FTIR SEM-EDX analyses used identify binding mechanism. The kinetics better fitted pseudo-second-order-equation compared pseudo-first-order-equation. Three isotherms for fitting mono-component solutions Sips model gives best simulation of experimental data. competitive-Sips fits well data Hg-Cu finds that Cu uptake is drastically reduced Hg competition. Copper(II) remains negligible at low pH whereas it increases with up 6 because material deprotonation. Mercury(II) behaves differently, slightly changes from 1 (qeq: 0.76 mmol g−1) 0.84 due chloro-anion formation. Therefore, playing allows separating Cu(II).