Synthesis of Poly(2-aminothiazole) for Selective Removal of Hg(II) in Aqueous Solutions

Conducting poly­(2-aminothiazole) (PAT) was simply green synthesized by a chemical oxidation method using 2-aminothiazole as the monomer and copper chloride as the oxidant in aqueous solution. The effects of reaction time and oxidant/monomer molar ratio on the polymerization yield were investigated. The PATs were characterized by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, UV–vis, gel permeation chromatograms (GPC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A series of adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate the adsorption properties of PAT for different heavy metals ions. The results suggested that the PAT possessed much better adsorption capability for Hg­(II) than other metal ions. The effects of pH, contact time, and adsorption temperature on the adsorption of Hg­(II) were evacuated. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained was 325.7 mg/g at 308 K from the Langmuir model. The adsorption mechanism was studied by FT-IR, UV–vis, and XPS. The polymer could be further regenerated through desorption of Hg­(II) using HNO₃ or HCl eluent.