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Modification of microcrystalline cellulose with acrylamide under microwave irradiation and its application as flocculant

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Abstract

Grafting polyacrylamide (PAM) chains onto microparticles may combine the advantages of the flocculation property of the former and the fast sedimentation of the later to realize better flocculation performance. In this work, inexpensive microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) microparticles, and monomer of acrylamide (AM) were mixed, and then irradiated under microwave. The obtained material was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, and the results demonstrated successful modification of MCC with AM on the particle surface. The modification procedure has been carefully investigated to obtain an optimum preparation condition. Kaolin suspension was selected as a model to evaluate the flocculation properties of the obtained AM-MCC. Our results indicate that the AM-MCC with the highest grafting ratio of 95.5% exhibits the best flocculation performance, which is even better than that of PAM, and the turbidity can be decreased to 1.4% of the naked kaolin suspension within 2.5 min. Therefore, this work provides a low cost strategy to prepare biodegradable AM-MCC, which may have promising potential application in the water treatment and other fields.

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Funding

This work received financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of China (51273166) and the Fundamental Research Funds for Xiamen University (20720172007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Xiuling Yu, Xuejiao Huang, Changzhuang Bai & Xiaopeng Xiong

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  1. Xiuling Yu
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  2. Xuejiao Huang
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  3. Changzhuang Bai
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  4. Xiaopeng Xiong
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Correspondence to Xiaopeng Xiong.

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Yu, X., Huang, X., Bai, C. et al. Modification of microcrystalline cellulose with acrylamide under microwave irradiation and its application as flocculant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 32859–32865 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06317-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06317-1

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