Preparation of a poly(acrylic acid) based hydrogel with fast adsorption rate and high adsorption capacity for the removal of cationic dyes

Zhenyu Yuan; Jie Wang; Yiming Wang; Qian Liu; Yujie Zhong; Yu Wang; Li Li; Stephen F Lincoln; Xuhong Guo

doi:10.1039/c9ra03077h

Preparation of a poly(acrylic acid) based hydrogel with fast adsorption rate and high adsorption capacity for the removal of cationic dyes

RSC Adv. 2019 Jul 5;9(37):21075-21085. doi: 10.1039/c9ra03077h.

Authors

Zhenyu Yuan¹, Jie Wang¹, Yiming Wang², Qian Liu², Yujie Zhong¹, Yu Wang¹, Li Li¹, Stephen F Lincoln³, Xuhong Guo^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology 200237 Shanghai P. R. China jiewang2010@ecust.edu.cn.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology 2629 HZ Delft The Netherlands.
³ School of Physical Sciences, University of Adelaide Adelaide SA 5005 Australia.
⁴ Engineering Research Center of Materials Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, Shihezi University 832000 Xinjiang P. R. China.

Abstract

A biocompatible Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel was prepared through copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate substituted dextran (Dex-MA) with acrylic acid (AA), which was applied as the adsorbent to remove cationic dyes from aqueous solutions. Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel presented a fast adsorption rate and the removal efficiency of Methylene Blue (MB) and Crystal Violet (CV) reached 93.9% and 86.4%, respectively within one minute at an initial concentration of 50 mg L^-1. The adsorption equilibrium data fitted the Sips isotherm model well with high adsorption capacities of 1994 mg g^-1 for MB and 2390 mg g^-1 for CV. Besides, dye adsorption occurred efficiently over the pH range 3-10 and the temperature range 20-60 °C. Moreover, the removal efficiencies for MB and CV were still >95% even after five adsorption/desorption cycles which indicates the robust nature of the Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel and its potential as an eco-friendly adsorbent for water treatment.