Multifunctional Composites of Hydroxy-Fe/Polyacrylates and its Surface Properties

Abstract

Multifunctional composites based on organic/inorganic materials had been synthesized using polyacrylate hydrogel as organic material and Fe(III)hydroxo as the inorganic material. These 2 materials were reacted to become a composite using two methods, chemically and physically. The composites did not dissolve in water when pH solution was changed, proving that they had high stability. However, physically-prepared composites still showed swelling properties whereas that of the chemically-prepared composites revealed very low swelling properties. Surface properties of the composites showed adsorption capability to cations and anions. Experiment result showed that the chemically synthesized composites had better adsorption for anions, however, the physically synthesized composites showed conversely. The analysis showed that adsorption of chemically synthesized composites followed the Langmuir isothermal model, meanwhile that of the physically synthesized composites followed the Freundlich isothermal model.