Preparation of a novel chelating resin bearing amidinothiourea moieties and its removal properties for Hg(II) ions in aqueous solution

A novel chelating resin bearing amidinothiourea (ADTU) moieties was prepared by chloroethyl crosslinked polystyrene (CMPS) with ADTU in the presence of a phase transfer catalyst. Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterized the resulting chelating resin. The saturated adsorption capacity of Hg(II) ions estimated from the Langmuir model was up to 1215 mg g⁻¹at 313 K. Furthermore, the resin was able to selectively separate Hg(II) from multicomponent solutions with Cd(II), Co(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Mg(II) and Pb(II). The desorption process showed the mercury recovery reached to 99.2% under eluting condition of 1 M HCl + 8% thiourea.