UC Irvine

In this thesis, the treatments of mercury and copper were studied because these heavy metals can be found in certain contaminated water. They accumulate in the food chain and damage the health of humans. Two exchange resins, Dowex 50W, a strong acid cation exchanger with sulfonic acid functional group, and Amberlite IRA-67, a weak basic anion exchanger with amino group, were compared to determine which resin was more effective for removing heavy metals from water. In this work, neutron activation analysis was used to determine the concentrations in aqueous solutions. Under certain concentrations, the adsorption percentages of copper were 97.6% ± 0.2% of Dowex 50W and 81.2% ± 2% of Amberlite IRA-67, and those of mercury were 81.5% ± 9% of Dowex 50W and 37.7% ± 9% of Amberlite IRA-67. The adsorption capacities of Dowex 50W were found to be 0.988 and 4.167, and those of Amberlite IRA-67 were found to be 0.606 and 9.462 for copper and mercury, respectively. Therefore, this paper recommends that Dowex 50W is used for the removal of heavy metals.