Abstract

Hydrogel membranes can swell by a high proportion of their weight and have a large surface area, and are nowadays preferred in adsorption studies. In this work, p(HEMA-GMA) poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-glycidyl methacrylate) spherical particulated hydrogel membrane (SPM) was produced by UV photopolymerization and the synthesized membrane was coupled with iminodiacetic acid (IDA) in order to bond the Cr(III) ions in the chrome tanning process effluent. Then p(HEMAGMA)- IDA-Cr(III) SPM was used to remove Acid Black 210 dye from the dyeing process effluent. The membrane’s chrome and dye adsorption capacities were determined using a UV/Vis Spectrophotometer at wavelengths of 601nm and 435nm respectively. After the membranes were used, the discharged tanning and dye process wastewaters were examined in order to see the differences in the wastewater in terms of COD, BOD5, conductivity, pH, salinity, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, potassium, total nitrogen and chromium content. The results showed that the metal-chelated p(HEMA-GMA)-IDA SPMs chelated chrome ions between 398.47 and 619.10mg/g, and the adsorbed Acid Black 210 dye molecules were between 0.76 and 1.87mg/g. In conclusion, p(HEMA-GMA)-IDA SPM is an effective sorbent system for removing Cr(III) ions and acid dye molecules from leather discharge waters.