Abstract
The present work describes a new modification process for producing a chelating ionβexchanger fibers with a distinct selectivity for toxic heavy metal ions. Acrylic fibers were reacted with different diamine compounds in similar conditions. Modified acrylic fibers were prepared by partial conversion of the nitrile groups into amino groups under twoβstep processes. In the first step, the pure liquid diamine was mixed with the fibers and in the second step, water was gradually added to the reaction flask to reach a predetermined 3M concentration at refluxing temperature of 91 ^Β°^C. The aminated acrylic fibers (AAFs) were used as an ion adsorbent in a series of batch adsorption experiments for removal of chromium(III) and lead (II) ions.
Experimental results showed that modified acrylic fiber with tetra methylene diamine (TMD) has the highest Pb(II) ion adsorption capacity. Results also showed aminated acrylic with ethylene diamine (EDA) has the most Cr(III) ion adsorption ability. Solubility tests showed, amination treatments give rise to the intermolecular crosslinkage in all samples. The Freundlich and Langmuir models simulated the adsorption equilibrium data of Cr(III) ions on modified fibers and their constants were determined.