Abaca/polyester nonwoven fabric functionalization for metal ion adsorbent synthesis via electron beam-induced emulsion grafting

Abstract

A metal ion adsorbent was developed from a nonwoven fabric trunk material composed of both natural and synthetic polymers. A pre-irradiation technique was used for emulsion grafting of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) onto an electron beam irradiated abaca/polyester nonwoven fabric (APNWF). The dependence of degree of grafting (Dg), calculated from the weight of APNWF before and after grafting, on absorbed dose, reaction time and monomer concentration were evaluated. After 50kGy irradiation with 2MeV electron beam and subsequent 3h reaction with an emulsion consisting of 5% GMA and 0.5% polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20) surfactant in deionized water at 40°C, a grafted APNWF with a Dg greater than 150% was obtained. The GMA-grafted APNWF was further modified by reaction with ethylenediamine (EDA) in isopropyl alcohol at 60°C to introduce amine functional groups. After a 3h reaction with 50% EDA, an amine group density of 2.7mmole/gram adsorbent was achieved based from elemental analysis. Batch adsorption experiments were performed using Cu2+ and Ni2+ ions in aqueous solutions with initial pH of 5 at 30°C. Results show that the adsorption capacity of the grafted adsorbent for Cu2+ is four times higher than Ni2+ ions. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.