Chitosan is a biopolymer obtained from the
deacetylation of chitin. It has many useful
features such as hydrophilicity, biocompatibility
and biodegradability. Due to its chelating
properties, the uptake of heavy metals by chitosan
has been investigated by many authors.(1-4) It has
been used in metal removal from wastewater. The
functionalization of chitosan with different
complexing agents such as 8-hydroxyquinoline,(5)
mercaptan(6) was carried out in order to obtain a
chelating resin more selective for individual
heavy metal.