Performance Test of Starch-g-Polyacrylamide Synthesized through Grafting as a Flocculant in Artificial Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

<p>Flocculation is one of the steps to get clean water. Grafted flocculant was successfully synthesized by combining the benefits of synthetic polymers (polyacrylamide) and natural polymers (cassava starch). This synthesis used “grafting to” method and passed through two stages, i.e. (i) the synthesis of non-terminated polyacrylamide (nt-PAM) and followed by (ii) grafting of non-terminated polyacrylamide (nt-PAM) on the cassava starch. The obtained flocculants were analyzed their molecular structure to determine the success of grafting. Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectra were verifying that polyacrylamide can be attached in the starch molecules. Both neat starch and modified starch were studied as a backbone. The molecular weight of the flocculant is increasing as the increase of acrylamide concentration and polymerization time. The effectiveness of flocculation is relating with the molecular weight. However, the longer chains of attached polyacrylamide show better performance during flocculation than that of shorter chains although the molecular weight was same. The best performance was showed for the flocculant that using: (i) modified starch of cassava as a backbone, (ii) acrylamide concentration of 0.02 M and (iii) polymerization time of 90 minutes. As monitored, it could reduce the turbidity of artificial wastewater about 87,81 %</p>

Synthesis of Cassava Starch-Grafted Polyacrylamide Hydrogel by Microwave-Assisted Method for Polymer Flooding

“…shows that the peaks of O-H groups in CSg-PAM is not as sharp compared to the CS. It was similar to FTIR spectra of starch-g-polyacrylamide [22] and cassava starch-polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (polyDADMAC) [23]. It may be explained that the presence of O-H groups was replaced by polyacrylamide chains [22].…”

“…It was similar to FTIR spectra of starch-g-polyacrylamide [22] and cassava starch-polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (polyDADMAC) [23]. It may be explained that the presence of O-H groups was replaced by polyacrylamide chains [22]. The presence of strain vibrations C=O, N-H, and C-N at -CONH 2 also indicates the success of the grafting process.…”

Microwave-assisted Method for Synthesis of Cassava Starch-Grafted Polyacrylamide Hydrogel: Initiator and Irradiation Power Variation

“…1, iCS-g-PAM are created as a result of free radicals generated in the cassava starch backbone with acrylamide through the use of the free radical reaction process. Because the O-H group iniCS-g-PAMiis replaced by a polyacrylamide chain, the peak of the O-Higroup is not as sharp as that of cassava starch 25) .…”