Radiation Induced Grafting of Glycidylmethacrelate onto Polypropylene Films for Removal of Mercury from Aqueous Solutions

This work illustrates the modification of polypropylene (PP) films through its grafting with glycidylmethacrelate monomer (GMA). Further chemical treatment of PP-g-GMA to convert epoxy groups into amine groups is discussed. Different factors affecting the grafting percent such as solvents, monomer concentrations, irradiation dose have been studied. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis confirm the grafting of PP. Morphological changes of PP, PP-g-GMA and treated PP-g-GMA are confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shows changes in the crystallinity on grafting. Adsorption and kinetic studies of mercury onto the prepared PP grafted and chemically treated films in sorption of Hg+ 2 metal ions from aqueous solutions have been studied. The experimental data fit favorably to the Langmuir isotherm with a high correlation coefficient. Moreover, the pseudo first and second order kinetics is also indicated. The results suggest that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model better represent the adsorption kinetics, suggesting that the adsorption process may be chemisorptions. It is more likely to predict that the adsorption behavior may involve valence forces through the sharing of electrons between Hg2 + and adsorbent. On the basis of these investigations, the applicability of the prepared membranes is discussed. Also the confirmation of metal ions adsorbed was confirmed using EDS spectrometric techniques.