Design and synthesis of a gelatin base ion imprinted polymer for selective extraction of Lead ion

Water pollution by heavy metals is a global environmental issue that has increased through activities such as mine exploitation, industrialization and urbanization all overthe planet [1]. Lead has a severe toxicity and is considered one of the most dangerous metals due to brain damage and damage to the nervous system of the kidney and the digestive tract, especially in children. For this reason, the release of heavy metals into the environment is a serious threat to human health and ecosystems [2].The molecular imprinted polymers represent a new category of artificially produced materials with proprietary identification sites. Since their discovery in 1972, imprinted polymers have attracted the attention of many scientists [3]. In this work, a new Pb(II)-ion imprinted polymer (Pb(II)-IIPs) based on gelatin was synthesized and applied for the selective extraction and preconcentration of Pb(II) ions from aqueous solution. Gelatin and vinyl pyridine as a chelating ligand, methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinking agent and ammonium peroxydisulfate (APS) as an initiator was used. The resulted product, (vinyl pyridinegelatin/ Pb(II)) was characterized successfully. After removing the template Pb(II) ions from polymeric networks, the Pb(II)-IIPs have been achieved (Fig 1).