Adsorption of Rhodamine B on two novel polar-modified post-cross-linked resins: Equilibrium and kinetics

Abstract

We employed two polar monomers, triallyl isocyanurate (TAIC) and butyl acrylate (BA), to copolymerize with divinylbenzene (DVB), and synthesized two starting copolymers labeled PDT and PDB. Then, the Friedel-Crafts alkylation reaction was performed for the two starting copolymers, and the residual pendent vinyl groups were consumed, and hence we obtained two novel polar-modified post-cross-linked resins PDTpc and PDBpc. The surface polarity greatly improved due to introduction of the polar monomers, and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and pore volume significantly increased after the Friedel-Crafts alkylation reaction. Compared with the starting copolymers, the non-polar post-cross-linked resin PDVBpc and some other adsorbents in the references, PDTpc and PDBpc possessed a much enhanced adsorption to Rhodamine B, and the equilibrium capacity reached 578.2mg/g and 328.7mg/g, respectively, at an equilibrium concentration of 100mg/L, and the Freundlich model characterized the equilibrium data very well. The adsorption was a fast process and the kinetic data obeyed the micropore diffusion model. These results confirmed that PDTpc and PDBpc had the potential superiority in adsorptive removal of Rhodamine B from aqueous solution.

Keywords: Adsorption; Polarity; Post-cross-linked resin; Rhodamine B.