Selective separation of mercury(II) using magnetic chitosan resin modified with Schiff's base derived from thiourea and glutaraldehyde.

Magnetic chitosan resin was chemically modified by a Schiff's base cross-linker. The interaction of the resin obtained with Hg(II) was studied and uptake value of 2.8 mmol/g was reported. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the adsorption process were estimated. These data indicated that the adsorption process is exothermic and follow the pseudo-second-order kinetics. The selectivity of Hg(II) from other different metal ions in solutions using the studied resin was also reported. Breakthrough curves for the recovery of Hg(II) were studied. The critical bed height was found to be 2.05 cm. The adsorbed Hg(II) was eluted from the resin effectively using 0.1 M potassium iodide.