Radiation grafting of acrylic acid onto partially deacetylated chitin for metal ion adsorbent

Abstract

Radiation processing technology is proved to be a useful tool for modification of polymer material including grafting of monomer onto polymer. In this study, partially deacetylated chitin (PD-chitin) was prepared by soaking chitin in NaOH solution with various concentrations from 10% to 50% (w/w) at room temperature for four days. The degree of deacetylation (DD%) of chitin samples was measured by IR spectroscopy method. Radiation grafting of acrylic acid (AAc) onto PD-chitin was carried out by immerging PD-chitin in AAc solution (5-20%v/v) for swelling two days. The swelled PD-chitin sample was filtered and irradiated with Co-60 radiation at dose of 4.8 kGy for grafting. The resulting product, so called PD-chitin-g-PAA was changed to sodium form, PD-chitin-g-PANa by treating with NaOH 1 N and used as metal ion adsorbent. The adsorption capacities of studied chitin samples for metal ion typically for Cu2+ was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results showed that the adsorption capacities for Cu2+ were as the following order: chitin < PD-chitin < PD-chitin-g-PANa < chitosan (DD76%). In addition, equilibrium isotherms were well fitted by Langmuir equation with the constants KL = 15.5 and 19.4 (mg/g); b = 0.02 and 0.04 (L/mg) for PD-chitin and PD-chitin-g-PANa, respectively. The obtained product, PD-chitin-g-PANa can be produced on large scale with competitive cost and used as metal ion adsorbent for water purification as well as for other purposes such as for sorption of dyes and for immobilization of bioactive substances. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.