Ultra-thin PEI-based coatings effectively and selectively accumulated up to 13% copper in the coatings from 200 ppb in artificial seawater.

Nano-thin coatings of glutaraldehyde cross-linked polyethyleneimine effectively and selectively accumulated copper from natural seawater.

Nano-thin coatings of glutaraldehyde (GA)-crosslinked polyethyleneimine (PEI) are extremely selective and effective in binding copper from seawater. Here it was demonstrated that GA-PEI performs significantly different from PEI. The copper-selectivity of self-assembled PEI coatings on silicon substrates was greatly improved by GA-crosslinking. After submersion in artificial seawater containing 200 ppb copper and equimolar amounts of 11 competing ions only copper and trace amounts of Zn were detected in the GA-crosslinked coatings, while for non-crosslinked PEI there was about 30% Zn present relative to copper. The coatings were demonstrated to be highly stable under acidic conditions and retained their copper-binding selectivity after repeated cycles of binding and acid-mediated elution. After self-assembly of the GA-crosslinked coating on mesoporous diatomaceous earth particles, significant amounts of copper could be extracted from 200 ppb in artificial seawater and eluted under acidic pH. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43954. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

To date, the quest for cost-effective methods for removal of dissolved metals from aqueous solutions remains a daunting challenge for many industries. This paper reports on the development of an effective, hybrid adsorbent for selective copper recovery from aqueous solutions under industrially relevant conditions. The work involved (i) purification and