Functionalised polymer brushes grafted onto nanosiliceous support for removal of cadmium (II) in environmental and biological samples

Abstract

The experiments in this work were based on the use of grafted polymers on glass nanoparticles for eliminating cadmium ions fromenvironmental and biological samples. Glass nanoparticles (NPs) were modified with (3-mercaptopropyl) trimetoxisilane followed by thegraft polymerisation of N,N-dimethylacrylamide and allylamine and then with bromoacetic acid. The grafted polymers on the glass NPswere characterised by Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and elemental analysis. Surfacemorphology was investigated via transmission electron microscopy. The optimum pH for cadmium adsorption and the adsorption capacityof the nanoadsorbent were 6.5 and 46.70 mg g-1, respectively. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson models were employed toanalyse the equilibrium adsorption data of Cd (II) on the grafted glass NPs. Finally, the grafted glass NPs were utilised for Cd (II)elimination from the biological and environmental samples.