Removal of Antimony(III) and Antimony(V) from water samples through water-soluble polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration.

Addressing antimony (Sb) contamination, which is caused by the use of Sb compounds in various industries, is crucial. This study aims to compare two different Sb removal mechanisms: ion exchange and chelation. Therefore, two different water-soluble polymers-glycidyl methacrylate-N-methyl-D-glucamine and poly 2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium chloride-were synthesized and used to remove Sb(III) and Sb(V) using the polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) method. The removal of Sb(III) was pH-dependent and extremely difficult at a pH of 1.2. However, when the pH of the solution was increased to 11, the Sb(III) removal rate increased to 77%. The Sb(III) removal rate was 28% at an Sb(III):polymer mole ratio of 1:5, which increased to 77% at a mole ratio of 1:20. Sb(III) removal was discovered to be unaffected by the low concentrations of Na ⁺ , K ⁺ , Ca ²⁺ , and Mg ²⁺ ions in the solution, maintaining a Sb(III) removal rate of 77%. The test parameters showed different characteristics for Sb(V) removal. Increasing the pH of the solution from 1 to 9 correspondingly increased the removal rate from 0% to 45%, but increasing it further to 11 decreased the removal rate to 14%. The removal rate of Sb(V) was 67% at a Sb(V):polymer mole ratio of 1:60. Sb(V) removal was discovered to be unaffected by low concentrations of SO ₄ ^2- , NO ₃ ^- , and PO ₄ ^3- anions in the solution. However, notably, the Sb(V) removal rate decreased from 67% to 58% in the presence of Cl ^- ions. The results demonstrate that Sb removal via chelation was more effective than by ion exchange, and it remained unaffected by the presence of interfering ions.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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