Hydrogels are widely used in diapers, soil modifiers, and cosmetics.   Here, we have incorporated iminodiacetic acid groups into hydrogels for the purpose of binding metal cations, such as toxic metals (lead or cadmium) or valuable metals (rare earth's, platinum group metals, etc).  The ability of dried hydrogels to absorb large amounts of water makes these materials useful for sequestering metal contaminated solutions into a swollen gel where chelating groups can bind the metal cations to the polymer architecture.  To incorporate the ligand into a hydrogel, iminodiacetic acid was reacted with glycidyl methacrylate to afford the 2,2'-((2-hydroxy-3-(methacryloyloxy)propyl)azanediyl)diacetic acid (HMPD) monomer that was copolymerized (0.55 M)  in water with <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>'-methylenediacrylamide (0.125 M) and acrylamide (1.95M).  In its diprotonated form, the HMPD monomer had to be copolymerized with acrylamide and opaque white gels were obtained. Ion exchange of iron, zinc, nickel and copper cations from aqueous solutions was studied with the HMPD gels and compared to that with acrylamide and acrylic acid hydrogels.

Iminodiacetic acid modified hydrogels for the removal of heavy metals from water

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