Radiation Grafting of Polymers for Advanced Application

Abstract

The main intention of this study is to evaluate the advance application of Radiation induced grafting of polymers. For the purposes we have taken non woven polyethylene fabric as a trunk polymer and Glycidylmethacrylate (GMA) was grafted on the trunk polymer(PE) by gamma radiation(pre-irradiation technique). The GMA-g- PE film functionalized through sulfonation. The prepared sulfonated- GMA-g-non woven PE films were used as a adsorbent to remove heavy metals Cu(II) , Cr(III), Pb(II), Uranium and dyes basic fuchsin(BF), methylene blue(MB) and crystal violet(CV) from waste water. The constructed sulfonated-GMA-g-PE filmwerealso tested for fuel cell membrane. The grafting yield was calculated with various parameters radiation dose, monomer concentration and reaction time. At 30kGy radiation dose, 5% monomer concentration,adding up of 0.5% Tween-20 as an additive, 4 h reaction time, maximum 343.31% of grafting occurred. The sorbent was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). We have prepared aqueous solutions of heavy metals Cu(II),Cr(III), Pb(II) and dyes basic fuchsin(BF), methylene blue(MB) and crystal violet(CV) in different concentrations and the metals and dyes uptake capacity were investigated by the developed sulfonated-GMA-g-PE sorbent. At different conditions such as contact time, pH and initial concentrations heavy metals and dyes uptake capacity were investigated. The adsorption of metals and dyes are highly pH and temperature dependent. With the increases of temperature sorption capacity of the adsorbent also increase. It is observed that the sorption capacity increases with time and sorption reached equilibrium after 48 h for all heavy metals and dyes. The sorption amount of heavy metals and dyes increases with increase of starting concentration and then reached platue value at certain elevated concentration.Pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order equations were used to interpret kinetics of the sorption process. The adsorption of heavy metals and cationic dyes occurs by electrostatic interaction between sulfonic group of sulfonated-GMA-g-PE sorbent and positive charge of the heavy metals and dyes. Langmuir and Fruendlich isotherm model were studied to illustrate sorption process. Between the two models Langmuir and Fruendlich, Langmuir model adjusted best with the sorption for Cu(II) , Cr(III), Pb(II) and Uranium. Among the dyes BF, MB and CV, Langmuir isotherm can interpret best the sorption of BF; while sorption of MB and CV follows Fruendlich isotherm model best as indicated by their relatively higher correlation coefficient. The uuptake ability of the sorbent for Cu(II) , Cr(III), Pb(II), U(VI), BF, MB and CV are obtained from Langmuir model are 117.64, 151.51, 140.84, 181.82, 357.14, 344.12 and 208.33mg/g, respectively. In addition, the sorbent could be renewed and reused repeatedly for the sorption of heavy metals and dyes. Hence, the constructed low cost sulfonated-GMA-g-PE fabric provides new outlook and posses a momentous potential for the treatment of cationic dye containing waste water. The grafted material showed perspective properties as a fuel cell membrane. Water uptake capacity was done at different temperature 60°C, 80°C and 100°C, oxidative stability, ion exchange capacity and proton exchange capacity of the membrane were performed successfully. The ion exchange capacity of the membrane was found 1.5mmolg-l.The experimental data showed that the sulfonated-GMA-g-PE can be used as a polymeric proton exchange membrane (PEMs) for fuel cell.