Influence of Sulfonation of Inert Macroporous and Macronet Resins on the SO 2 Adsorption Capacity Oanamari Daniela Orbuleţ & Cristina Modrogan & Cristina Orbeci & Madelene Annette Dancilă & Constantin Bobiricǎ & Liliana Bobiricǎ & Eugeniu Vasile Received: 5 June 2018 /Accepted: 15 November 2018 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 Abstract The influence of sulfonation of both macroporous and hyper-cross-linked polystyrenic poly- mers on their adsorption capacity for SO 2 removal from residual gases was studied through equilibrium experi- ments and microstructural analysis. The results showed that the insertion of functional sulfonic active groups leads to a decrease of adsorption capacity of macroporous and macronet resins mainly due to decreasing of specific surface area of the resins. The results were compared with those obtained for pow- dered activated carbon, which has an adsorption capac- ity higher compared with that of macroporous resins and lower than those of macronet resins. The high adsorp- tion capacity of macronet resins has been attributed to the advanced cross-linking of the polystyrene chains that leads to the formation of a three-dimensional net- work with a high specific surface area. The fitting of the experimental data on the typical adsorption isotherms (Langmuir and Freundlich) highlighted the surface het- erogeneity of macroporous and macronet resins. Keywords Macroporous resins . Macronet resins . Sulfur dioxide . Adsorption . Sulfonation 1 Introduction Despite the efforts made to increase the electricity pro- duction capacities from alternative sources, combustion of fossil fuels is currently and will remain the main source of electricity production for most of the world’s countries over the next years (Razaei et al. 2015; Yildiz 2018). Flue-gas streams from fossil fuel combustion (i.e., coal, natural gas) in power plants contain acidic gases such as SO x and NO x , which are responsible along with other pollutants for atmospheric pollution leading to some sever environmental problems such as ozone layer destruction, photochemical smog, and formation of acid rain (Lin et al. 2010; Sudalma et al. 2015). Water Air Soil Pollut (2018) 229:394 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-4041-5 O. D. Orbuleţ : C. Modrogan (*) : C. Orbeci : M. A. Dancilă : C. Bobiricǎ : L. Bobiricǎ Department of Analitycal Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Polizu, 01106 Bucharest, Romania e-mail: c_modrogan@yahoo.com O. D. Orbuleţ e-mail: oanamari2001@yahoo.com C. Orbeci e-mail: cristina27ccc@yahoo.com M. A. Dancilă e-mail: mady70_ro@yahoo.com C. Bobiricǎ e-mail: c_bobirica@yahoo.com L. Bobiricǎ e-mail: l_bobirica_ro@yahoo.com E. Vasile Institute of Research and Development BMETAV^ S.A., 31 C.A. Rosetti, 020011 Bucharest, Romania e-mail: e_vasile@yahoo.com