Sorption of non‐ferrous metal ions from aqueous solutions by polymer compositions based on polyacrylic acid and bentonite clay

Abstract Composite hydrogels (CH) were obtained by copolymerization of acrylic acid with N , N ‐methylene‐bis‐acrylamide in the suspension of bentonite clay (BC) by the method “in situ.” At this CH of cross‐linking structure was formed in which, in the space between parts of polymer hydrogels (PH) on the base of polyacrylic acid (PAAc), were introduced particles of mineral. The morphology and structure of CH have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy, which has shown that particles of BC are distributed throughout the whole volume of the composite. The sorption of Cu 2+ , Ni 2+ , and Cr 3+ ions from aqueous solutions of their salts by sorbents using the spectrophotometric method was studied. It has been determined that the introduction of BC particles into the composition of PH leads to a noticeable increase in their sorption capacity. Determination of the elemental analysis of the composition of sorbents after sorption by X‐ray fluorescence analysis showed that the sorption of non‐ferrous metal ions increases in the row Cr 3+ < Ni 2+ < Cu 2+ .