Synthesis of Poly(GG- co-AAm- co-MAA), a Terpolymer Hydrogel for the Removal of Methyl Violet and Fuchsin Basic Dyes from Aqueous Solution

Shahid Khan; Najeeb Ur Rahman; Sultan Alam; Muhammad Zahoor; Luqman Ali Shah; Muhammad Naveed Umar; Riaz Ullah

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c07118

Synthesis of Poly(GG- co-AAm- co-MAA), a Terpolymer Hydrogel for the Removal of Methyl Violet and Fuchsin Basic Dyes from Aqueous Solution

ACS Omega. 2024 Feb 5;9(7):7692-7704. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c07118. eCollection 2024 Feb 20.

Authors

Shahid Khan^{1

1}, Najeeb Ur Rahman^{1

1}, Sultan Alam^{1

1}, Muhammad Zahoor^{1

1}, Luqman Ali Shah², Muhammad Naveed Umar³, Riaz Ullah⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, University of Malakand, Chakdara Dir Lower, KPK 18800, Pakistan.
² National Center of Excellence in Physical Chemistry (NCE), University of Peshawar, Nowshera 25120, Pakistan.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, U.K.
⁴ Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

A novel adsorbent designated as terpolymer hydrogel (gellan gum-co-acrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) was prepared by free radical polymerization of gellan gum (GG), methacrylic acid (MAA), and acrylamide (AAm) using N,N-methylene bis-acrylamide (MBA) as cross-linker and ammonium per sulfate (APS) as the initiator of the reaction. The synthesized gel was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and was used for the adsorptive removal of methyl violet (MV) and Fuchsin Basic (FB) dyes from aqueous solution. The effect of temperature, contact time, pH, and concentration on them under the study adsorption process was evaluated. Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were found to be best in fitting the isothermal and kinetics data. The water diffusion and % swelling of hydrogel were studied at various pH in distilled water and at neutral pH in tap water. The diffusion was found to be of Fickian type with a maximum swelling of 5132%. The maximum adsorption capacity was 233 mg/g against MV and 200 mg/g against FB dyes. The swelling and adsorption were pH dependent and increased with increase in pH. The enthalpy, Gibbs free energy, and entropy changes of adsorption for both the dyes indicated the adsorption process to be exothermic, feasible, and spontaneous. The hydrogel was successfully regenerated using acetone and distilled water for five cycles and still, its dye removal efficiency was 80% of its original value. The poly(GG-co-AAm-co-MAA) hydrogel successfully removed the selected dyes from water and could thus be used as an efficient alternative sorbent for cationic dye removal from aqueous solutions.