Metal ions in wastewater endanger the environment and even human life. In this study, an optimized method was used to synthesize an excellent hydrogel to treat these metal ions. The samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and applied to treat the Cu(ii) and Co(ii) ions in wastewater. In the adsorption experiment, the influential factors such as pH, adsorption time, adsorbent dosage and concentration of heavy metal ions and regeneration efficiency were evaluated, and the adsorption kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics were studied. The orthogonal optimization results show that the best condition for synthesis was when the degree of neutralization of acrylic acid (A) was 70%, the quantity of glucose (B) was 0.2 g, the quantity of chitosan (C) was 0.05 g, and the quantity of initiator (D) was 0.03 g. The influence of the four factors was in the order D > B > C > A. The adsorption performance was optimal under neutral conditions and the dosage of 0.02 g adsorbent was chosen as the best. Experiments show that the composite hydrogels exhibited excellent performance under optimal conditions: at 20 °C and pH = 7, the adsorption capacity of 100 mg L-1 of Cu(ii) by 0.01 g hydrogel was 286 mg g-1. The adsorption process of heavy metal ions by hydrogels conforms to pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm model, which indicate a spontaneous endothermic reaction. Moreover, after five cycles, the removal rates of Cu(ii) and Co(ii) were 81% and 74.8%, respectively.
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