Influence of temperature on adsorption mechanism of anionic polyacrylamide in the Al2O3 –aqueous solution system

The influence of temperature on the adsorption mechanism of anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) on the alumina surface was studied in the temperature range 15–35 °C. The structure of polymer adsorption layer was determined from spectrophotometric, surface charge and zeta potential measurements. These methods enable determination of the following parameters: adsorbed amount of polymer, surface charge density and zeta potential of Al2O3 particles in the absence and presence of PAM. The influence of carboxyl groups content in the polyacrylamide macromolecules (varying from 5 to 50%) was also examined. The obtained results indicate that temperature influences the adsorption behaviour of anionic polyacrylamide on the Al2O3 surface. Slight increase of PAM adsorbed amounts with the temperature rise was obtained for the polymer samples characterized by the higher anionic group content (20, 30 and 50%). In the case of PAM with 5% content of these groups significantly larger adsorption was observed at 25 °C. The PAM presence causes also changes in electrokinetic properties (zeta potential and surface charge density values, as well as pHpzc and pHiep positions) of the examined system in the temperature range 15–35 °C.