The general objective of WHIERTARN project is the synthesis of inexpensive and reusable ion exchange resins based on acrylic copolymers with high affinity to different heavy metal ions and test for Tarnita wastewater decontamination.

          In this context, in the first part of the project a visit to the Tarnița contaminated area is foreseen to establish experimental perimeter, sampling for preliminary identification of contaminants (heavy ion metals) and preliminary determination of their concentrations.

        In the second part, different ion exchange resins will be synthesized by a two-steps procedure: (a) copolymerization of acryl and  divinyl monomers; (b) chemical modification of the three-dimensional networks by appropriate polymer analogous reactions, to introduce ionizable groups. The characterization of the obtained resins will be performed by using the infrastructure available in the "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Iasi.

          The third part of the work program is devoted to the batch sorption experiments of various heavy metal ions, which fall under regulation of European directives. Batch sorption experiments will be performed in order to investigate the role of pH on the sorption properties, the sorption kinetics and isotherms, as well as mathematical modelling applied in order to theoretically describe the sorption process.

         In the last part of the work program, laboratory-scale column experiments will be performed and the competitiveness between various heavy metal ions in column-based flow set-ups will be studied. The sorption/desorption of the target heavy metal ions will be followed by UV-vis spectroscopy or AAS, depending on the heavy metal ions concentration range.

WHIERTARN