Preparation, investigation of metal ion removal and flocculation performances of grafted hydroxyethyl starch

Ceric ion induced graft copolymerization of N,N-dimethyl acrylamide (DMA) and acryl amide (AM) were carried out onto the hydroxyethyl starch (HES). These grafted copolymers were used for the removal of metal ions from their aqueous solutions. Flocculation performances of the synthesized graft copolymers were evaluated in 1.0 wt% silica suspensions. A comparative study of the flocculation performances of the synthetic graft copolymers was also made. The different factors affecting metal ion absorption, namely pH, treatment time, temperature and polymer dose were studied. A comparative study of the metal ion removal capacity of the two synthetic graft copolymers was also made in five metal ions namely Ni(II), Zn(II), Cu(II), Pb(II) and Hg(II). The metal ion removal capacity follows the order Hg(II) > Cu(II) > Zn(II) > Ni(II) > Pb(II) in both the two synthetic polymers. Between the two graft copolymers, graft copolymer based on AM shows better performance than that based on DMA in all the metal solutions. But the flocculation performance of DMA based graft copolymer showed better performances than that AM based graft copolymer. The former also performed best when compared to the commercial flocculants in the same suspension.