“…[3] Among these various methods, adsorption of heavy metals by chelating hydrogels is widely investigated and has had many interesting achievements. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Metal ion chelating polymers, called polychelatogens, contain one or more electron-donor groups (Lewis bases) such as vinyl pyridine, [3] N-methacryloylhistidine, [4] N-vinyl imidazole, [10,11] benzo-18-crown-6-acrylamide, [12] polyethyleneimine, [13] dithiocarbamate, [14] thiazolidine and benzothiazole, [15,16] 8-hydroxyquinoline, [17] and acrylic acid [18] that can form coordination bonds with most of the toxic heavy metal ions (Lewis acids). In the current study, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as a two-dentate chelating co-monomer was used for enhancing heavy metal removal properties of salep-g-polyacrylamide hydrogel.…”