Artículo de publicación ISINatural and synthetic polymers with heteroatom, such as oxygen,nitrogen, sulfur or phosphorous, potentially can efficiently remove metal ions fromaqueous solutions. The ability of synthetic polym ers derived from imino diacetic acid,acrylamido glycolic copolymer, and the natural polymer alginic acid to remove metalions from dilute solution in conjunction with ultrafiltration membranes was studied.The maximum retention capacity was determined and its polymer-metal ion-complexes were studied as possible antibacterial agents.