Modification of gum ghatti via grafting with acrylamide and analysis of its flocculation, adsorption, and biodegradation properties

Hemant Mittal; Vaneet Kumar; Saeed M Alhassan; Suprakas Sinha Ray

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.03.131

Modification of gum ghatti via grafting with acrylamide and analysis of its flocculation, adsorption, and biodegradation properties

Int J Biol Macromol. 2018 Jul 15:114:283-294. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.03.131. Epub 2018 Mar 23.

Authors

Hemant Mittal¹, Vaneet Kumar², Saeed M Alhassan³, Suprakas Sinha Ray⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, PO Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: mittal.hemant5@gmail.com.
² Department of Applied Science, CT Group of Institutions Shahpur, Jalandhar, Punjab, India.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, PO Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
⁴ DST/CSIR National Centre for Nanostructured Materials, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa. Electronic address: rsuprakas@csir.co.za.

PMID: 29580994
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.03.131

Abstract

In this work, an environmentally friendly gum ghatti-crosslinked-polyacrylamide (Gg-cl-PAAM) hydrogel was synthesized from gum ghatti (Gg) and acrylamide (AAM) using a microwave-assisted grafting technique, and tested for use in water purification applications as an adsorbent and flocculent. The Gg-cl-PAAM was characterized using SEM, FTIR, and TGA, and displayed pH responsive swelling behavior, with maximum swelling (2117%) observed in solution with neutral pH. The flocculation characteristics of Gg-cl-PAAM were tested in clay solutions as a function of pH, temperature, and the polymer mass loading, showing that the best performance is obtained at neutral pH at 40°C. The adsorption capacities of Gg-cl-PAAM for the removal different dyes such as brilliant green (BG), rhodamine B (RhB), congo red (CR), and methyl orange (MO) were tested, revealing that the adsorption of all dyes followed the Langmuir isotherm model, with q_m values of 523.62mgg^-1 for BG, 421.60mgg^-1 for RhB, 179.09mgg^-1 for CR, and 173.69mgg^-1 for MO. Finally, the environmentally friendly nature of Gg-cl-PAAM was examined using the soil-burial composting method, which demonstrated 93% degradation of the Gg-cl-PAAM hydrogel within 60days.

Keywords: Adsorption; Biodegradable hydrogel; Dye removal; Flocculation.

MeSH terms

Acrylamide / chemistry*
Adsorption
Flocculation
Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry*
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Plant Gums / chemistry*
Water Purification / methods*

Substances

Fluorescent Dyes
Plant Gums
Acrylamide
gum ghatti