Application of Polycarboxylic Acid Brushes on Polystyrene–Divinylbenzene Microbeads for the Removal of Lead from Water

Contamination of the environment with lead (Pb) is of great concern because it is harmful to living organisms even at low concentrations. This work describes a reliable strategy for the effective removal of lead ions using polycarboxylic acid brushes on polystyrene–divinyl benzene (PS–DVB) microbeads. The synthesized material is demonstrated to be a viable sorbent for lead ion adsorption. The following parameters are examined to obtain the optimal sorption conditions: pH of 5, sorbent amount of 10 mg, contact time of 120 min, and sorption temperature of 25 °C. Under these conditions, the maximum removal efficiency and experimental adsorption capability are found to be >93% and 134 mg g⁻¹, respectively. Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic models best represent the adsorption process. It is evaluated that an exothermic and spontaneous adsorption mechanism occurs. The method's applicability is demonstrated with spike recovery experiments using real water samples. Overall, the results show that the synthesized material has high removal efficiency (>93%) against lead ions in a variety of water matrixes.