Synthesis of amine-functionalized ultrasonic assisted dual metal imprinted polymer: a real magnetic sorbent for simultaneous removal of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ from water samples

This work describes the synthesis of the amine-functionalized dual-metal imprinted polymer via a simple ultrasonic-mediated precipitation polymerization approach and was applied as a magnetic adsorbent for the selective removal of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ from real water samples. The application of ultrasonic heating reduced reaction time by five times as compared to conventional heating. The crystalline nature, elemental composition, surface functionality, and morphology of prepared selective sorbent were examined by XRD, EDX, FT-IR, and SEM. The prepared IIPs exhibit fast dynamic, and excellent binding potential. The adsorption pattern was well assessed by the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic. The IIP displayed high selectivity for Cd²⁺ and Pb²⁺ over Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Co²⁺, and Ni²⁺ in the presence of co-existing ions. Exceptional linearity was attained in the range of (2–150 μg/L), and satisfactory low LOQ and LOD for Cd²⁺ (1.3, 0.39) and Pb²⁺ (0.83, 0.25), μg/L and % RSD for Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ (3.46, 4.14) were achieved, respectively. The prepared sorbent is simple, reproducible, cost-effective, high binding capacity, selectivity, and magnetic separability with fast kinetic. The proposed sorbent was effectively used to remove Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions simultaneously from an aqueous solution.