Synthesis Of Cellulose (Maizecob)-Graft-Poly(Acrylamide) Copolymer For The AD Sorption Of Indigo Blue

Abstract

In this study, hydrogel was synthesized by graft copolymerization of acrylamide into a maize cob cellulose backbone using N’N-Methylene Bis Acrylamide (MBA) as crosslinker and potassium persulphate (KPS) as an initiator. The hydrogel swelling properties in-terms of monomer concentration, cross-linker concentration and pH were investigated. The structure, thermal stability and surface morphology were characterized by FTIR, DSC and SEM, respectively. Phase evolution, before and after grafting, was investigated using X-ray Diffraction (XRD).Energy Dispersion Spectroscopy (EDS) was used to determine the elemental compositions of the raw maize cob, the bleached maize cob and the hydrogel before and after adsorption. The developed hydrogel showed good characteristics, the best result obtained was a percentage removal,74.46% of indigo blue at 40-minute contact time, 450C temperature and 0.5g hydrogel dose. The result obtained in this work shows that hydrogel has promising applications in adsorption of dye.