Removal of heavy metal ions from waste water using anion exchange polymer membranes

An effective method has been developed to remove the heavy metal ions (Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ & Cr⁶⁺) present in the four different waste water industry such as i) Fertilizer, ii) Sewage, iii) Tannery and iv) Dye industry, using two different anion exchange polymers ie., Quaternized Polysulfone (QPSu) and Poly styrene ethylene butylene poly styrene (QPSEBS) membranes as adsorbents by batch adsorption process. Influence of contact time on adsorption process was evaluated. Before and after the adsorption process, the membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The concentration of the metal ions after sorption process was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The tannery water showed more Cr⁶⁺ content and was removed by the adsorbents efficiently up to 30 % using QPSu membranes.