Hydroxyethyl Starch-g-Poly-(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid): An efficient dye removing agent

• Synthesis of HES-g-Poly-(DMA-co-AA).
• Characterization using GPC, FTIR, NMR and SEM.
• Biodegradation studies by enzyme.
• Dye removal from aqueous solution.
• Study of adsorption kinetics.

Hydroxyethyl Starch-g-Poly-(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) was synthesized by solution polymerization technique using potassium peroxydisulfate (K2S2O8) as the initiator at 90 °C. The synthesized graft copolymer was characterized by FTIR, NMR (both 1H and 13C) Spectroscopy, molecular weight determination by GPC, TGA/DTG and SEM analysis. Biodegradation study was carried out by enzymatic hydrolysis. The number of carboxylic acid groups incorporated into the polymer was calculated by measuring neutralization equivalent (N.E) of the graft copolymer titrimetrically. The synthesized graft copolymer was used as the adsorbent for the removal of Malachite green, a cationic dye from its aqueous solution. The operating variables studied were the amount of adsorbent, solution pH, contact time, temperature and the initial dye concentration. The adsorption data were used to fit in the pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order rate equation in order to investigate the sorption mechanism. Equilibrium isotherm was analyzed using the Langmuir and the Freundlich isotherms. In the present investigation it was found that the adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo second order kinetics for the studied dye concentration range. The negative value of free energy change indicates the spontaneous nature of the adsorption and also suggesting a chemisorption process.

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