Chelate resin is a resin that has an exchange group which can form chelates with various metal ions. It shows higher selectivity for metal ions than ion exchange resin and can selectively remove characteristic metal ions. In an aqueous solution containing metal ions, chelate resin can adsorb specific metal ions, and the separated chelate resin can desorb the adsorbed metal ions by changing temperature or pH, so chelate resin has the advantage of being reusable. Chelate resin has been used industrially as an adsorbent to adsorb and separate heavy metal ions in wastewater, and is also used for the purpose of recovering precious or rare metals contained in industrial wastewater or industrial waste. Against this background, there is a need to develop chelate resins with higher adsorption capacity. Acrylic fiber is defined as a man-made fiber made from a linear synthetic polymer with fiberforming ability consisting of more than 85% acrylonitrile. It is a man-made fiber that is often used as a substitute for wool because it has good thermal insulation properties like wool and is warm and soft to the touch. It is a fiber rich in cyano groups due to its high content of acrylonitrile, and has the advantage of being able to be used as a variety of functional fibers through modification of cyano groups. In this study, the amination reaction of acrylic fiber was performed using diethylenetriamine, and the adsorption characteristics for metal ions were evaluated according to the reaction conversion rate. In order to improve the amination efficiency, 400 kGy was irradiated using a 2.5 MeV electron beam accelerator, and through this, the crosslinking rate of acrylic fiber was able to be improved up to 80%. Water and ethanol were used as cosolvents for the amination reaction in a ratio of 60/40 vol/vol, respectively, and a reaction yield of 178% was obtained after 120 minutes of reaction. Using the chelate resin prepared in this way, the adsorption performance for metal ions was evaluated through Atomic Absorption Spectrometry analysis.

In this study, enhanced cation exchange capacity of polystyrene (PS) electrospun fibers by electron beam irradiation was investigated. PS spinning solutions were prepared by dissolving 25 wt% PS in 75 wt% mixed solvents (dimethylacetamide (DMAc)/tetrahydrofuran (THF)) at the ratio of 33/67% v/v with divinylbenzene (DVB; 0, 1, 2 phr)　as crosslink agent. The PS electrospun fibers were carried out at doses of 0 (control), 100 and 200 kGy. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) of PS electrospun fibers depend on the DVB concentration and irradiation dose. The PS electrospun fiber with DVB 1 phr at dose of 150 kGy showed the maximum IEC of 4.670 mmol/g.