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Polyelectrolyte membranes (PEMs) are a novel type of material that is in high demand in health, energy and environmental sectors. If environmentally benign materials are created with biodegradable ones, PEMs can evolve into practical technology. In this work, we have fabricated environmentally safe and economic PEMs based on sulfonate grafted sodium alginate (SA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). In the first step, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulphonic acid (AMPS) and sodium 4-vinylbenzene sulfonate (SVBS) are grafted on to SA by utilizing the simple free radical polymerization technique. Graft copolymers (SA-g-AMPS and SA-g-SVBS) were characterized by 1 H NMR, FTIR, XRD and DSC. In the second step, sulfonated SA was successfully blended with PVA to fabricate PEMs for the in vitro controlled release of 5-fluorouracil (anti-cancer drug) at pH 1.2 and 7.4 and to remove copper (II) ions from aqueous media. Moreover, phosphomolybdic acids (PMAs) incorporated with composite PEMs were developed to evaluate fuel cell characteristics, i.e., ion exchange capacity, oxidative stability, proton conductivity and methanol permeability. Fabricated PEMs are characterized by the FTIR, ATR-FTIR, XRD, SEM and EDAX. PMA was incorporated. PEMs demonstrated maximum encapsulation efficiency of 5FU, i.e., 78 ± 2.3%, and released the drug maximum in pH 7.4 buffer. The maximum Cu(II) removal was observed at 188.91 and 181.22 mg.g -1 . PMA incorporated with PEMs exhibited significant proton conductivity (59.23 and 45.66 mS/cm) and low methanol permeability (2.19 and 2.04 × 10 -6 cm 2 /s).

This study mainly focuses on the preparation, characterization, and sorption performance for Cu(II) and Zn(II) by using nano-alumina material (NA) synthesized through the sol-gel method. The SEM, EDS, FT-IR, and XRD analysis methods were implemented to identify the micromorphology and crystal structure of the synthesized NA absorbent and its structure after the adsorbing procedure. The effect of effective variables including various absorbent dose, contact time, initial ion concentration, and temperature on the removal of Cu(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous solution by using NA was investigated through a single factor experiment. Kinetic studies indicated that adsorption of copper and zinc ions by NA was chemical adsorption. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted by Langmuir (R 2 : 0.919, 0.914), Freundlich (R 2 : 0.983, 0.993), and Temkin (R 2 : 0.876, 0.863) isotherms, indicating that copper and zinc ions were easily adsorbed by NA with maximum adsorption capacities of 87.7 and 77.5 mg/g for Cu 2+ and Zn 2+ , respectively. Thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption of Cu 2+ was spontaneous(G<0) and the adsorption of Zn 2+ might not be spontaneous (G > 0) by NA. Graphical abstract ᅟ.