LAUSR

Abstract A novel metal-chelating membrane (MCM) capable of efficient Cu(II) rejection was synthesized by grafting glycidyl methacrylate into acrylonitrile polymers and then performing amination using eco-friendly 2,4,6-triaminopyrimidine. The MCM exhibited a pure water flux of 283 L m−2 h−1, a bovine serum albumin rejection of 95%, and a flux recovery ratio of 85%. A filtration study showed that the effective treatment volume of MCM for Cu(II) removal was 55.4 L m−2, which was 6.2 times those of blend membranes. This increase can be ascribed mainly to the presence of amino and carboxylic groups. The treatment volume of Cu(II) was further increased by a factor of 2 in the presence of tartaric acid (TA) in water through both rejection of the Cu(II)-TA complex and the bridging interaction of adsorbed TA. The MCM could be recovered using a 0.1 M HNO3 solution and remained usable for treatment of simulated wastewater. Therefore, the MCM may be able to efficiently remove heavy metal ions from wastewater in the presence of organic acids.